6 
Allen’s naturalist’s library. 
the rump and upper tail-coverts brighter chrome-yellow, the 
fcather.s being tipped with this colour ; quills externally green, 
with dull white spots on the outer aspect of the primaries, the 
inner webs spotted with white ; crown of head crimson, as also 
a broad moustachial stripe ; nasal plumes and fore-part of face 
black ; sides of face and under surface of body light yellow- 
ish or yellowish-white ; throat paler ; the vent and under tail- 
coverts with crescentic dusky marks or bars ; bill blackish, the 
base of the lower mandible yellow; feet grey; iris white. 
Total length, about 12-5 inches; culmen, 17; wing, 6-4; tail, 
47 ; tarsus, 1-3. 
Adult Female. — Like the male, but has the moustachial stripe 
black. Total length, 12 inches; wing, 6-4. 
Yotingr. — Resemble the adults, but much duller green in 
colour, with dusky bars on the upper surface ; forehead and 
eyebrow black, with tiny white spots ; sides of face blackish, 
streaked with white ; a black moustache, minutely spotted with 
white ; under surface of body yellowish-white, profusely spotted 
with blackish. 
Eange in Great Britain. — Most common in the southern coun- 
ties, but plentiful in many of the midland districts, as far as 
the south of Yorkshire. North of this it is rare, and has only 
been found breeding occasionally in the Border counties. In 
Scotland it can only be of occasional occurrence, and from 
Ireland it has been but twice recorded. 
Range outside the British Islands. — Generally distributed over 
Europe as far cast as the Ural Mountains, the Caucasus, and 
Persia. It occurs throughout France and Italy, but does not 
cross the Mediterranean, and is replaced in the Spanish Penin- 
sula and Portugal by Gecinus sharpii. It breeds in Norway up 
to 63° N. lat. ; in Sweden and Russia up to about 60° N. lat. 
That it is not a migratoiy sjiecics is shown by the fact that it 
has occurred but once in Heligoland. 
Hahits. — I'he noisy laugh of the “Yaffle” (as this bird was 
popularly called in the days of Chaucer, and is even now known 
by the same name in many country districts of the south of 
England) is a sound familiar enough to visitors to the New 
Forest and other parts of England, where the bird is still to be 
found. The Green Woodpecker is indeed more often heard 
