NATURAL 
HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
397 
places inland. In fine weather during full moon, and on bright 
nights, birds, as a rule, come over to their time. The nightingales 
were very late this year (1875) in arriving, on account of the 
cold spring. Swallows, as a rule, come to. their time, although 
they do not go direct to their breeding-places ; they keep under 
the South downs, and in protected localities such as the Devil's 
Dvke, near Brighton, the weather is always very mild under the 
Devil's Dyke Hill. 
Pairing of Birds, p. 103. — Among all migratory birds if the 
male or female is destroyed before the flight or arriving time is 
past, he or she finds a fresh mate almost immediately. This no 
doubt is done by the call, but when the arrival flight is over 
they all get settled down to their resting-places. At pairing 
time, if there chance to be a roving cock or roving hen about, 
they rove until they find tlieir mate. When a cock bullfinch 
or cock nightingale has been caught the female will find a mate 
in two days. 
The Woodpecker. — Flight and Walk of Birds, p. lOG.^ 
— As I am exceedingly fond of dissecting when not engaged 
in other work, I will now proceed to describe the struc- 
ture of the woodpecker, as I wish to demonstrate what 
admirable beauty and design may be found in the com- 
monest objects, if only the student of natural science knows 
how, when, and where to look. The woodpecker I bought is 
the great green woodpecker (Picus viridis). According to 
Wood it is also called the " rain-bird,'" the " woodspite," " hew- 
hole," and " woodwall." In Oxfordshire they are called " heccles," 
or " green aisles." The structure of this bird will, I think, form an 
answer to the Darwinian theory. In every respect it is most 
admirably suited to the duty which it has to perform in 
nature. In the first place, the colouring of the bird is a lovely 
green. What could be a better dress for a bird who lives in 
a wood than green ? The Foresters paradi ng at their fetes, I 
observe, wear green coats. The woodpecker has to run up 
the sides of trees, and whereas the tail feathers of a peacock 
are made to expand, so as to exhibit all the glorious colours 
of the rainbow, shoAving that nature intended that this kind 
of tail should be jourely ornamental, so we find, on the contrary, 
that the tail of the woodpecker is made entirely for utility. The 
bird has ten feathers on its tail, Fig. A. The two centre feathers 
are four and a half inches long. They are as stiff as wire, and 
^ Tliis paragraph is quoted from my "Logbook of a Fisherman and 
Zoologist." Chapman and Hall, Piccadilly. 
