THE GREEN WOODPECKER. 21 
Family—PICID«E. Subfamily—PICINA. 
THE GREEN WOoODPECKER. 
Gecinus viridis, LINN. 
S not known to breed in Norway north of lat. 63°, or north of lat. 60 in 
Sweden and Russia; appears to be found throughout Western Persia and 
Asia Minor; generally distributed throughout Southern Europe.—Scebohm. 
In Great Britain and Ireland it is local, though in England and Wales it is 
pretty generally distributed in the more wooded districts; in the north it is 
rarer and very few examples have been obtained either in Scotland or Ireland. 
The upper parts of this bird are mostly dull sap-green, shading into chrome- 
yellow on the rump, the crown, nape, and a moustachial patch on the cheeks of 
the male satiny carmine, grey at the base of the feathers; the wings smoky 
brown, the primaries with the outer webs blacker and regularly barred with 
white; the outer webs of the secondaries green with slightly paler bars, but the 
inner webs with large marginal white or whitish spots; tail feathers smoky brown, 
blackish towards the tips and with indistinct blackish bars; lores, cheeks, ear- 
coverts, and feathers round the eye black, excepting the patch on the cheeks of the 
male already mentioned; under parts pale greyish green, lighter on the abdomen, 
which is spotted with dusky crescentic markings; bill slaty-black, with the under 
mandible much lighter excepting towards the tip: feet dark slate grey; iris 
bluish white. The female has less carmine on the crown and none on the cheeks. 
Young birds have the lower breast, abdomen, and under tail coverts barred, and 
nestlings are barred both above and below, have no black on the lores, ear- 
coverts, or round the eyes, whilst that on the cheeks is spotted with carmine 
in the male and pale brown in the female. 
This is the largest of the British Woodpeckers: it haunts chiefly forests, 
woods, and heavily timbered parks, but may be met with in plantations, 
orchards, and large gardens. Its flight is powerful, wild, and undulating. On 
the earth its mode of progression is somewhat awkward; it both walks and hops: 
on a tree it moves upwards, usually in a spiral, by a series of jerky hops, insert- 
ing its long tongue into every crevice in search of its insect prey, whilst its stiff 
tail is pressed against the trunk and helps to support it. From time to time 
VoL, WI E 
