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(Picus martius, Linn.-Le Pic noir, Buff.)

THIS scarce bird is the largest of the British Woodpeckers, being about seventeen inches in length, bill nearly two and a half, of a horn colour, and pale yellow on the sides; irides also pale yellow; the crown of the head is crimson, and the feathers elongated to the nape; the quills are brown, and all the rest of the plumage dull black; the legs are lead grey, having the fore part covered with feathers half their length.

The female differs from the male, the hinder part of her head only being red, and in some specimens, the red is entirely wanting; the black parts of her plumage are also duller. They form their nest in the deep hollows of old trees, and like the rest of the genus lay two or three white eggs.

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WOODSPITE, HIGH-HOE, HEW-HOLE, OR PICK-A-TREE.*

(Picus viridis, Linn.-Le Pic verd, Buff.)

THIS is the second in size of the British kinds, being thirteen inches in length. The bill is two inches long, triangular, and of a dark horn colour; the tongue towards the tip is furnished with numerous fibres, projecting transversely, of the size of minute hairs; the outer circle of the eye is white, surrounding another of red; top of the head bright crimson, which extends down the hinder part of the neck,

Wallis, in his History of Northumberland, observes that it is called by the common people Pick-a-tree, also Rain Fowl, from its being more loud and noisy before rain. The old Romans called them Pluvia aves for the same reason.

part of the neck, ending in a point behind; the eye is surrounded by a black space; and from each corner of the bill runs a crimson streak pointing downwards; the back and wing coverts olive green; rump yellow; the quill feathers are dusky, barred on the outer web with black and white; the bastard wing spotted with white; sides of the head and under parts of the body white, slightly tinged with green; the tail is marked with bars like the wings; legs greenish. The female differs from the male in not having the red mark from the corner of the mouth; she makes her nest in the hollow of a tree, fifteen or twenty feet from the ground. Buffon observes that both male and female labour by turns in boring through the sound part of the wood, sometimes to a considerable depth, until they penetrate to that which is decayed and rotten, where she lays five or six eggs, of a greenish colour, marked with small black spots.

The Green Woodpecker is seen more frequently on the ground than the other kinds, particularly where there are ant-hills. It inserts its long tongue into the holes through which the ants issue, and draws out those insects in abundance. Sometimes, with its feet and bill, it makes a breach in the nest, and devours them at its ease, together with their eggs. The young ones climb up and down the trees before they are able to fly: they roost very early, and repose in their holes till day.

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(Picus major, Linn.-L'Epeiche, ou le Pic varié, Buff.)

LENGTH Somewhat more than nine inches. The bill is of a dark horn colour, very strong at the base, and exceedingly sharp at the end; the upper and under sides formed by high-pointed ridges, which run along the middle of each; the eyes are reddish, encircled with a large white spot, which extends to the back part of the head, on which is a spot of crimson; the forehead is buff; the top of the head black; on the back part of the neck are two white spots, separated by a line of black; the scapulars and tips of the wing coverts white; the rest of the plumage on the upper part of the body black; the tail is black, the

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