The Woodpecker. 
203 
CHAPTER IX. 
Shakspeare has no mention of the Woodpecker, or 
Laughing-hecco. Drayton, in his poem, The Woodpecker 
Owl , describes the persecution which the un¬ 
fortunate bird of night undergoes from the woodpecker 
and the rest of his feathered comrades :— 
“ The wood-pecker, whose hardened beak hath broke, 
And pierc’d the heart of many a solid oak; 
That where the kingly eagle wont to pray, 
In the calm shade in heat of summer’s day, 
Of thousands of fair trees there stands not one 
Tor him to perch or set his foot upon ; 
Upon the sudden all these murderous fowl, 
Fallen together on the harmless owl, 
**#*■*& 
The crow is digging at his breast amain; 
And sharp-neb’d hecco stabbing at his brain.” 
The woodpecker is called in some countries tbe yaffle, 
and rainbird, as bis cry was beld to foretell rain. Other 
names were specke, woodspecke, and woodspike ; in The 
Parlyament of Byrdes —a poem, without date, reprinted 
in the Harleian Miscellany (yol. y. p. 507)—two of these- 
names occur:— 
“ The Specke. Then in his hole, sayd the wood-specke, 
1 1 wolde the hawk had broke his necke, 
Or brought into mischevous dale, 
For of every byrde he makyth a tale.’ ” 
