PASSEEES. 413 



five to seven eggs are laid on a bed of wood-chips. There is a 

 new nesting-hole formed every year. Sound as well as decayed 

 trees are attacked ; but the good the green woodpecker does in 

 destroying injurious insects makes up for the harm it does to a 

 few trees. They feed almost exclusively on insects, especially 

 the larvse of wood-boring beetles, which we see them hunting 

 for up the tree-trunks. The stiff feathers of the tail help them 

 in their progress up the trunk. Ants and other ground-insects 

 are also eaten by G. viridis, it being no unusual thing to see 

 them hunting on the ground. This handsome woodpecker has 

 green upper plumage, greyish-green under plumage, and bright 

 crimson crown and nape. 



The Great Spotted Woodpecker (Pini.-i major) and the Lesser 

 iSpotted (P. minor) also live in a similar way, and feed off wood- 

 destroying insects. 



The Wryneck {Yunx torrpiilla) is allied to the Woodpeckers, 

 and makes its nest in a hole formed in a tree like the other 

 Woodpeckers. Its food consists mainly of insects, which it 

 licks off by means of its long extensile tongue covered with a 

 glutinous saliva. 



14. Passeres or Passeriformes. 



The last remaining group includes the majority of our birds. 

 They have fourteen or fifteen cervical vertebrae, and the second, 

 third, and fourth toes 

 are always turned for- 

 ward. The brain is 

 more fully developed 

 than in other birds, and 

 the organ of voice is 

 most highly organised. p„, 226.— foot of Passserjke Bibd (Wagtail). 

 The chief families are 



the Larks {Alaudi(hf), the Rooks, &c. {Corvidw), the Starlings 

 (Stuniidce), the Finches {Fringillidd-), the Wagtails {Mota- 



