THE WOODPECKER. 
I2 7 
are now rightly expunged from the native fauna. It only contains four species, yet 
these are very strongly marked—the Green, the Great Black, the Greater and the 
Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers. 
The most common of these is the Green Woodpecker ( P. viridis ), which may 
be expected in every well-wooded district, either flying heavily across a field from 
one plantation to another, or uttering its mocking laugh, which rustics regard as a 
certain prognostic of rain. It rejoices in many names with them, such as rainbird, 
hewhole, awlbird, woodwall, yaffingale, and poppinjay. The feathers on the crown of 
this bird’s head are dusky, tipped with crimson ; the upper plumage is green and 
the under feathers greenish ash colour; the back of the head and moustaches are 
crimson and the face black. Thus this Woodpecker is one of our most gaily- 
coloured birds. In the female the head is less crimson and the moustaches black. 
Its length is thirteen inches. It is found throughout Europe in suitable localities ; 
also in Africa and Egypt. Its food entirely consists of insects, its tongue being 
nearly six inches in length, to enable it to procure them with greater facility. 
When it finds an elm or ash with symptoms of decay it enlarges a cavity with its 
powerful beak, and lays on the rotten wood, without any appearance of a nest, four 
or five glossy white eggs. Ants and their eggs form a dainty to this bird, so it 
may be often seen on the ground attacking ant-hills. The young run on the trees 
before they are able to fly, and are said if captured to be easily tamed. Its method 
of feeding is to work upwards on a tree, generally obliquely, and when it has 
ascended and scrutinised the bark sufficiently it flies off to another, or descends to a 
lower point and again ascends. It is not a shy bird, especially in cold weather, and 
we have seen it working diligently on trees close to houses and frequented paths. 
Often it commences nidification in February, but the young do not appear until 
early summer. Mr. Johns exactly describes the proceedings of this bird as it 
searches for food. “It may be observed ascending by a series of starts the trunk of 
a tree, inclining now a little to the right and now to the left, disappearing now and 
then on the side farthest from the spectator, and again coming into view somewhat 
higher up. Nor is its beak idle. This is employed sometimes in dislodging the 
insects which lurk in the rugged bark, and sometimes in tapping the trunk in order 
to find out whether the wood beneath is sound or otherwise. A canker-spot found, 
it halts in its course, tears off piecemeal a portion of bark, and excavates the rotten 
wood beneath, either as far as the fault extends or as long as it can find food.” 
He deems it in no wise a mischievous bird, but rather beneficial to the planters, 
from its destruction of mischievous insects, and a good guide to the woodman, as it 
