to interest himself in the character and success of this History
of our British Birds, might have been carried much
farther, but it may perhaps be considered that enough has
already been said here upon this subject.
Though sufficiently common and well known in the wooded
districts of England and Scotland, as before observed, I
can find no record of the occurrence of the Green Woodpecker
in Ireland. It is not a common bird in Holland;
though found generally on the European Continent from
Scandinavia and Russia to Spain, Provence, and Italy. The
editor of the last edition of Pennant’s British Zoology, says,
that it is also found in the wooded districts of Greece, but
not on the eastern side of that country, which is bare of trees.
The adult male has the beak of a dark horn-colour, almost
black, the base of the lower mandible only being nearly
white; the feathers ov$r the nostrils, on the lore, and round
the eye, black; the crown of the head and the occiput bright
scarlet; the irides white, tinged with pale straw colour ; from
the base of the lower mandible a mustache extends backwards
and downwards, formed of black feathers, with a brilliant
scarlet patch along the middle of i t ; the neck, back,
wings, wing-coverts, and scapulars, dark green, tinged with
yellow; rump and upper tail-coverts sulphur yellow; wing-
primaries greyish black, spotted with white along the whole
of the outer web, and on the proximal half of the inner web;
the secondaries and tertials uniformly green on the outer web,
greyish black spotted with dull white on the inner web ; tail-
feathers long, stiff, and pointed, the middle pair the longest,
the others graduated, in colour greyish black, indistinctly
barred across with dull greyish white ; the whole of the under
surface of the body ash green; legs, toes, and claws, black.
The whole length about thirteen inches. From the carpal
joint to the end of the wing, six inches and a half: the first
quill-feather short, the second shorter than the seventh, the
third, fourth, fifth, and sixth, nearly equal, but the fourth the
longest in the wing.
Adult females have less red upon the head, and no red on
the black mustache.
In young birds that have recently .quitted the nest, the
scarlet colour on the top of the head is mixed with yellow
and greyish black, the feathers passing by a change of colour
from greyish white to yellow, and afterwards to scarlet; on
the mustache of the young male the same changes may be
observed; on the back and wings the green feathers are
tipped with yellow: all the under surface of the neck and
body dull .greyish white tinged with ash green, streaked
longitudinally on the neck, and transversely on the breast
and belly, with greyish black. The green colour on the
under surface of the body increases with age.
The vignette below represents the breast-bone of the
Green Woodpecker, rather larger than the natural size; the
power of flight may be estimated by comparing this bone
with that of a Falcon, vol. i. p. 106, and that of an Owl, at
p. 130, or with that of the Jackdaw, in the present volume,
p. 8%, between which bird and the Green Woodpecker, there
is no great difference in size.