A male and female of this species were lodged toge ther in a large square cage. The vessel that held their food was placed at the bottom. The male usually sat on the same perch with the female, and close beside her. Whenever one descended for food, the other always follow ed ; and, when their hunger was satisfied, they returned together to the highest perch of the cage. In this state of confinement they passed four years, when the female became languid, and her legs swelled, and were knotty, as if symptomatic of gout. It was no longer possible for her to descend, and take her food as formerly ; but the male assiduously brought it to her, carrying it in his bill, and delivering it into hers; and he continued to feed her in this manner for four entire months. The infirmities of his mate, however, increased every day, so that at length she was no longer able to sit on the perch, but remained crouched at the bottom, making from time to time a few fruitless efforts to regain the lower perch, while the male, who remained close by her, seconded these her feeble attempts with all his power, sometimes seizing with his bill the upper part of her wing, to try to draw her up to him ; sometimes taking hold of her bill, and attempting to raise her up, repeating his efforts several times. His countenance, his gestures, his continual solicitude, indi cated in this affectionate bird the most ardent desire to aid the weakness, -.lid to alleviate the sufferings, of his companion. But the scene became still more interesting, when the female was on the point of expiring. Her un fortunate partner then went round and round her without ceasing; he redoubled his assiduities and his tender cares; he attempted to open her bill, in order to give her some nourishment; he went to her, and returned with the most agitated air, and with the utmost inquietude ; at inter , vals he uttered the most plaintive cries, while at other times, with his eyes rivetted on her, he preserved a sor rowful silence. His faithful companion at length ceased to breathe; and from that time he languished, and died in a few months.
Piens, Lin. &c. WOODPECKER.
Bill angular, straight, wedged at the tip; tongue round, vermiform, very long, bony, missile, beset at the point with reflex bristles; tail feathers tell, hard, rigid, and pointed. In search of insects and their larva:, the birds of this genus climb trees, especially such as are decaying, or already dead. For this exercise nature has formed them with short and robust legs and feet, stout toes, hooked, strong, and pointed claws, which are thicker than broad, a thick and muscular rump, the tail feathers con cave, and very strong and elastic at the points, so that they easily cling to trees with their feet, and sustain their creep ing and upward movements by their tail. The strokes of their beak are sometimes repeated in such rapid suc cession, that it is impossible to reckon them. If they per ceive that a caterpillar is lodged beneath the bark, and observe no hole by which it can get out, they strike with more force, but less rapidity, as is likewise their practice when they scoop out a hole for their nest ; and such is their perseverance, that they have been known to excavate the thickest trunks to the very centre. All the wood peckers have an offensive smell, owing perhaps to their constantly living on worms and insects. Very few of them are capable of walking on the ground for any length of time. Some of them live in families, some in pairs, and others are solitary. By means of their hard and sharp bill they bore the wood, and expose the retreats of their prey, and then, with a motion inconceivably quick, dart ing at their victims with their long tongue, which is tipt with a sharp bony process, dentated on both sides, and smeared over with a viscous fluid, tranfix them with this formidable weapon, and draw them within their mouths. They have a membranous stomach, and are destitute of a ccecum. In many places they are unjustly persecuted, from a notion that they are injurious to trees, whereas they in fact prevent the multiplication of their most in sidious enemies. We should observe, however, that some of them also eat fruit; and that sound trees are some times affected by their perforations. None of them have a musical note; nor do they appear to have been destined for social intercourse, being almost incessantly occupied in picking the bark of trees for their sustenance.
P. martins, Lin &c. Black Woodpecker, Great, or Greatest Black Woodpecker. Black, with the crown scarlet. Bill nearly two inches and a half long, of a dark ash-colour, and whitish on the sides; irides pale yellow. Size of a jackdaw; length seventeen inches ; alar extent up wards of two feet ; and weight about eleven ounces. In the female the hind-head only is red, and the whole plumage has a tinge of brown. In some instances the red on the head is entirely wanting. 'The young males have the upper parts of the head marked with red and blackish spots. It occurs in Europe, Siberia, and Chili; but few
well-authenticated instances are on record of its having been observed in Great Britain. It appears, however, to have been once shot in Lancashire, and perhaps once or twice in Devonshire. Some writers allege that it is migratory ; but Gerardin assures us, that in Lorraine, though fathom numerous, it remains throughout the year. It is not found in Italy, but is said to be common in Ger many, and in some parts of southern Russia and Siberia, affecting the solitary and extensive forests of illy regions, and exhibiting most of the habits of the green species. So hostile is it to that where many of these insects at hived in the trees, the people are obliged to take every precaution to guard the mouth of the hive, which is gene rally done with sharp thorns, though not always with sufficient effect. The black woodpecker makes its nest deep in some tree, which it has excavated for the purpose, and lays two or three eggs, which, like those of most of the genus, are white and glossy.
P. viridis, Lin. &c. Green Woodpecker, Prov. Wood spite, High-hoe, Haw-hole, Yappingale, Yoffie, Yaffler, IVoodwall, and Popinjay. Wallis, in his History of Northumberland, observes, that it is called by the com mon people, Pick-a-tree, and also Rainfowl, from its being most loud and noisy before rain; and, for the same reason, it was included in the Pluvix Ayes of the Romans. Green, with a scarlet crown. Nearly the size of a jay; weight six ounces ; length thirteen inches; and alar extent eighteen inches six lines. The young, on coming from the nest, have very little red on the head. Among the accidental varieties, some are of a light straw-colour, with the head only tinged or spotted with red, and others are more or less sprinkled with white. Inhabits Europe, and is far from uncommon in the wooded parts of England. its note is harsh, and its flight undulating. It feeds on insects, and is partial to ants and bees. It is frequent ly seen climbing up a tree, dislodging the larvae of a nu merous tribe of the coleopterous insects, as well as the fetid caterpillar of the Goat-moth, (Phalrena cossius,) of which it frequently smells. In spring and summer it is more commonly observed on the ground than its conge ners, being strongly attracted by ant-hills. Laying its long extensile tongue in the path of the little occupants, who seem to take it for a worm, whenever it is sufficiently load ed with them, it suddenly draws it in, and swallows them. Should cold or rain benumb or confine the ants, the wood pecker breaks down their habitation by the combined ef forts of its bill and feet, and consumes both the insects and their chrysalids at leisure. The hole which it makes in a tree is as perfect a circle as if it had been traced by a pair of compasses. It is curious to observe it trying every part of the dead limb of a tree, till it has discovered the most sonorous; and then its strokes are reiterated with such velocity that the head is scarcely perceived to move, and the sound may be distinctly heard at the distance of half a mile. Dr. Plott ludicrously exaggerates this noise, and erroneously attributes it to the nuthatch. The softer kinds of wood, such as the elm, the ash, and especially the aspen, are most commonly selected for the purpose of nidification; and they are perforated only where they exhi bit symptoms of decay. In the course of the boring process the male and female labour by turns. The ex cavations are often deep, to give security to the eggs, which are generally four or five, of a transparent white or greenish hue, marked with small black spots, and placed on the rotten wood, without any formal nest, visually at fifteen or twenty feet from the ground. Oc casionally, however, moss or wool is employed as a bed for the eggs. During breeding time the sexes sel dom separate, retire early to rest, and remain in their retreat till day-break. The young ones are able to climb before they can fly ; and they roost very early in the even ing. Even at a very tender age, if fed caterpillars from the dunghill, put into milk, and mixed with crumbs of bread, they will not only submit to confinement, but become sufficiently tame, and evince attachment to their feeder. A jarring noise, which has been compared to a hurried and continuous laugh, and which is sometimes heard in the forests in spring, is said to be the sexual call of this species, which also emits a plaintive and protracted clamour, expressed by the syllables p/eu, p/eu, on the approach of rain. A person may often come nearly with in reach of the green woodpecker whet it is occupied in beating on a tree; but it frequently makes an abrupt turn round to the opposite side of the trunk or branch, to seize on any insects, which, alarmed at the noise, may have issued from their retreats.