78 



yellow on the latter; wing-coverts green, with a distinct golden lustre; the primary coverts brown, 

 slightly washed with green, and barred with paler brown; quills brown, the inner web barred with 

 whitish, the primaries tinged with green near the base of the outer web, which is marked with several 

 white blotches, more or less irregular, secondaries so broadly washed with golden green as to be almost 

 entirely of that colour ; under wing- and tail-coverts whitish, irregularly barred across with greenish, 

 the latter much more broadly ; bill dark leaden grey, blackish at the point, lighter at the base ; legs 

 dark grey; iris bluish white. Total length 12 inches, culmen 1*7, wing, 6 - 3, tail 4 - 2, tarsus 1 - 1. 



Adult Female. Exactly similar to the adult male, but easily distinguished by the black instead of scarlet 

 moustachial stripe. 



Young Male. Above green, duller than in the adults, mottled with transverse yellowish bars, and here and 

 there a white spot; the head greyish, with scarlet tips to the feathers of the crown and nape; the 

 eyebrow and cheeks longitudinally streaked with whitish, the ear-coverts less distinctly ; the moustachial 

 stripe and sides of the neck greyish black, spotted with whitish ; throat whitish, and under surface of 

 the body yellowish, all the feathers transversely crossed, and some of them edged with brown, producing 

 a scaled appearance ; flanks more distinctly blotched with brown ; iris dark grey. 



Young Female. Like the last, but paler and more mealy, not so much marked with brown cross-barrings on 

 the breast, and the moustachial stripe not so plainly indicated. 



The Green Woodpecker is very generally distributed throughout Europe, but does not seem to 

 be found in Siberia. In some countries it is considered to be slightly migratory, but appears to 

 breed in all the countries of political Europe, though how far it extends its range in Spain, and 

 whether it really occurs beyond the Pyrenees, will be a question for future research to determine. 

 It has been recorded by a great many observers as common in Spain and Portugal; but the 

 specimen in the collection of our friend Mr. Howard Saunders is certainly quite a distinct species, 

 and appears to us to be identical with the North- African Gecinus levaillanti. 



Its geographical distribution in Great Britain during the breeding-season is given by Mr. 

 A. G. More in his invaluable paper so often quoted by us: — "Not a common bird, but marked 

 as nesting regularly in every county as far north as Derbyshire. In the north of Yorkshire it 

 becomes scarce, and nests only occasionally in Durham and Northumberland. 



' : The Green Woodpecker is not included in either of the two lists which Mr. J. F. Brock- 

 holes has sent from Lancashire and Cheshire ; but Mr. C. S. Gregson informs me that the bird 

 breeds in the latter county. Mr. Gregson also states that ' the Green Woodpecker breeds in 

 Barron Wood, Cumberland, close to the borders of Scotland,' and 'also in Westmoreland.' 

 Dr. Heysham, however, only knew it as a rare visitor to Cumberland; nor is it marked in the 

 lists which I have received from Mr. Gough and Mr. T. Hope." 



It seems to be decidedly more common in the southern counties of England, and becomes 

 gradually rarer as one goes northward. About eight years ago Sharpe used to observe it plenti- 

 fully in Huntingdonshire ; but Lord Lilford writes : — " In this neighbourhood (Lilford) the 

 numbers of this species have very much decreased during the last few years, for no reason that I 

 can discover, whilst Picus minor has become extremely abundant." In Middlesex Mr. Harting 

 also considers it not sc common as the last-named bird ; and the same remarks apply to Berkshire, 

 as noticed by Sharpe in the neighbourhood of Cookham. Mr. J. Brooking Bowe records it as 



