. Cassell's natural history. Animals; Animal behavior. TUE WOom'ErKEU. peifectly sountl, so souin], indeeci, 'that tlie bird had evidently given \ip the idea of inhabiting it for tliat year, antl had betaken liiniself elsewhere, after having excavated a round hole to the depth of two or three inches. In the same tree, a little lower down, was a similar hole, evidently made the previous year, when the biid had '• tapped " the tree, and it was clear that he had returned again in the succeeding season, and had tried a little higher up in the trunk, to see if there were any chance of procurin


. Cassell's natural history. Animals; Animal behavior. TUE WOom'ErKEU. peifectly sountl, so souin], indeeci, 'that tlie bird had evidently given \ip the idea of inhabiting it for tliat year, antl had betaken liiniself elsewhere, after having excavated a round hole to the depth of two or three inches. In the same tree, a little lower down, was a similar hole, evidently made the previous year, when the biid had '• tapped " the tree, and it was clear that he had returned again in the succeeding season, and had tried a little higher up in the trunk, to see if there were any chance of procuring a domicile. Thie proceeding nurst have injured the tree, and was the work of a Green Woodpecker, or Yaffle, whose laughing note was heard from another quarter of the park, f\en as the above examination was being conducted. In this part of Hampshire, though the bii-d is not pei-secuted by the owier of Avington, Mr. Edward Shelley, or by his keepers, the Green Wood- pecker is rare; but in certain parts of Huntingdonshire the writer can remember to have found it. very plentiful in liis school-days, and it was a never-failing object in a country walk, flitting from tree to tree in front of the observer, and always keeping a sharp look-out from the opposite side of the trunk on which he settled. This species appears in old pieces of poetry under the various names of Yaffle, Woodwele, or Woodwale, Whetile, and it is in some phxces called "Hewhole," Woodhaeker, ikc.*:— " The Skylark in ecstasy sang from a cloud, And Chanticleer crowed, and the YaflSl laughed ; The Peacock at Some. '' The AVoodwele , and would not cease, Sitting upon the spray ; So loud he wakened Robin Hood In the greenwood where he ; Ritson's Editi. of Robin Hood, vol. i., p. Yarrell, "British Birds," vol. ii., p. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and


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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjecta, booksubjectanimals