170 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH INLAND BIRDS 
ants and their " eggs or (correctly speaking) 
their pupag, which it secures by darting out its long 
and glutinous tongue. This habit it shares with 
the common Green Woodpecker, and like that 
bird it may sometimes be seen upon the ground 
rifling an ant-hill with great zest and vigour. 
GREEN WOODPECKER. 
{^Gecinus viridis,) 
Yaffle, Ecle, Rain-bird, Whitwall.— This is the 
largest and commonest of the British Wood- 
peckers, and a familiar bird in nearly all the 
well-wooded parts of the country. Its laughing, 
ringing cry is a familiar sound to most country 
dwellers, especially in changeable weather, and just 
before or after the cry the bird itself may often be 
seen crossing from tree to tree with its curious un- 
dulating, plunging flight. On alighting, it does not 
perch like most other birds, but clings more or less 
upright to branch or trunk in a climbing attitude. 
The Woodpeckers are one and all famous climbers 
and tree-borers, and their structure is wonderfully 
adapted to this method of life. The beak is a 
straight, strong pick-axe, and is mounted on a 
suitably large and lengthy head ; the legs are far 
back, so as to give the pick-axe plenty of swing ; 
