WOODPECKERS. 
000 
Green Strictly birds of the Old World, these woodpeckers are plenti- 
Woodpeckers. fully distributed in the temperate portions of Europe and Asia, 
several species occurring in the Himalaya, and hence extending through the 
Burmese countries to the Malayan Peninsula, Java, Sumatra, and Borneo. In 
Europe there are three species, Gecinus viridis , G. sharpei, and G. canus, while in 
Algeria there is a fourth species of the same group, G. vaillanti, a species allied 
to the European ones; G. aivokera occurs in Japan. All the other green wood- 
COMMON GREEN WOODPECKER (f nat. size), 
peckers are tropical. The principal characteristic of this genus of woodpeckers is 
the green plumage, and they are likewise remarkable for the small outer or 
dwarf tail-feather, which is very short for the size of the bird. One of the 
most interesting of European birds, not only on account of its habits and bright 
coloration, but from its association with the poetry of Chaucer, who mentions 
it by the name of yaffle, by which it is known to the present day in many 
parts of the south of England, the green woodpecker ( G. viridis) still ‘ laughs 
loud ” in many a woodland district. Its green colour, crimson crown, and yellow 
rump, render it conspicuous, and its dipping flight is peculiar, being a series of 
