A dictionary of British birds : reprinted from Montagu's Ornithological dictionary, and incorporating the additional species described by Selby; Yarrell, in all three editions, and in natural-history journals / compiled and edited by Edward Newman.
- George Montagu
- Date:
- 1866
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A dictionary of British birds : reprinted from Montagu's Ornithological dictionary, and incorporating the additional species described by Selby; Yarrell, in all three editions, and in natural-history journals / compiled and edited by Edward Newman. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![ii. p. 552, 1; Ih. Sup. p. 104; Don. Br. Birds, i. t. 13; Wale. Stpi. i. t. 45 ; PuU. Cat. Dorset, p. 6. — We give this bird ns a British species with considerable doubt; blit as Dr. Lnthara says he hns been in- formed it is sometimes met with in the south, and in particular Devonshire, a de- scription of it to the English ornithologist may be acceptable. It must,however, be ob- served that the author does not speak of it as such from his own knowledge, nor have we been able to ascertain the fact. It is about the size of a .Jackdaw; length seven- teen inches and a half; irides pale yellow. Bill near two inches and a halflong, of a dark ash-colour, and whitish on the sides. The whole bird is black, except the crown of the head, which is vermilion ; the two middle feathers of the tail are longer than the rest; the legs are lead-coloured, co- vered with feathers on the fore part for half their length. The female has only the hind part of the head red, and the whole plumage has a tinge of brown. In some the red on the head is wholly want- ing ; but this marking in both sexes is subject to much variation. This species is found in many parts of the European Continent, but nowhere so plentiful as in Germany. It has all the habits of the Green AVoodpecker, and is said to be a great destroyer of bees. Makes its nest deep in some tree which it has excavated for the purpose, and lays two or three white eggs, which seems peculiar to the whole genus. Supplement.—In Doctor Pulteney’s Ca- talogue of the Dorsetshire Birds this is noticed as having been more than once killed in that county ; one in particular is said to have been shot in the nursery at Blandford, and another at AA'hitchureh. Lord Stanley assures us that he shot a Picus martins in Lancashire [This is an error, as his Lordship subsequently stated] ; and we have heard that another was shot in the winter of 1805, on the trunk of an old willow tree in Battersea Fields. [There is no British-killed spe- cimen of this handsome bird, and our or- nithologists, all of whom give the species as British, fail to suggest any hypothesis to account for its immigration : the Rev. A. C. Smith, one of our very best observers, watched it narrowly in Norway, and in the ‘ Zoologist ’ for 1850 relates, at p. 2946, his experience of its habits : he says, “ I never saw birds fly more heavily, or with sucli apparent difficulty and such clumsy motion, as these Great Black AVood- peckers.] AAToodpecker, Green.— [Yarrell, ii. 142; Hewitson, Ixi. 230.] Picus viridis, Lin. Syst. i. p. 175, 12 ; Gmel. Syst. i. p. 433; Raii Syn. p. 42, A. 2 ; Will., p. 93, t. 21; Ind. Orn. i. p. 234, 27; Bris. iv. p. 9, 1; 76. 8vo. ii. p. 44. Pic verd, Buf. vii. p. 7, t. 1. Green AVoodpecker, Br. Zool. i. No. 84 ; Ih. fol. p. 78, t. E.; Arct. Zool. ii. p. 277, B.: Albin, i. t. 18 ; Will. Angl. i. p. 135, t. 21; Hayes, Br. Birds, t. 10; Lewin, Br. Birds, ii. t. 51; Lath. Syn. ii. p. 577, 25 ; Sup. p. 100 ; Wale. Syn. i. t. 40 ; Pult. Cat. Dorset, p. 0 ; Don. Br. Birds, ii. t. 37. Provincial: AA^ood-spite; Rain-bird, or Rain-fowl; High-hoe ; Hew-hole ; Awl- bird ; Yappingiile : Yaffle, or Yaffler; AAhiodwall ; Poppinjay. — This species weighs about six ounces ; length thirteen inches. The bill is dusky, two inches long; the tongue near six inches; irides white. The feathers on the crown of the head dusky, tipped with crimson ; the eyes surrounded with black ; beneath which, in the male, is a crimson spot bor- dered with black, which in the female is wholly black; the neck, back, lesser co- verts of the wings, and scapulars are green; the rump pale yellow; quill-fea- thers dusky, the greater spotted on each web with white, the lesser very faintly spotted on the exterior webs, and deeply bordered with green ; the coverts of the ears and whole under parts are of a very pale j'ellow-green ; the tail-feathers are stiff, pointed, alternately barred with dusky and green, tipped with black, except the outer feathers; legs ash-colour; claws much hooked. This species is not un- common about most of the wooded parts of England ; its food is entirely insects. The formalion of the whole of this tribe is admirably adapted to their mode of life. The bill, which is strong, and formed like a wedge at the point, enables them to force their way through the sap of a tree, when by instinct it is discovered to be decayed at heart. AATth this instrument it dis- lodges the larvre of a numerous tribe of the coleopterous insects, as well as that stinking caterpillar the larva of the goat- moth (Phalajna Cossus), of which they fre- quently smell. The tongue is no less wonderfully formed for insinuating into all the smaller crevices to extract the hid- den treasure, by transfixing the larger insects, or by adhesion withdraw the smaller; for, like the AVryneck, it is fur- nished with a glutinous substance for that purpose. Nor can we less admire the short and strong formation of the legs, and the hooked claws, so well calculated to enable them to climb and affix them- selves against the body of a tree, either to roost, or perforate a hole ; to assist which the stiff tail is of infinite use. The jarring noise so frequentl3f heard in woods in the spring is occasioned bj' one or other of this genus, which, from frequent observa-](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28089935_0414.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
