Woodpecker.
The woodpecker’s screech was a sign of rain. This bird is called by two names in Welsh which imply that it foretold storms; as, Ysgrech y coed, the wood screech, and Caseg y drycin, the storm mare.
These names have found a place in Welsh couplets:—
“Ysgrech y coed!
Mae’r gwlaw yn dod.”The Woodpecker’s cry!
The rain is nigh.
Bardd Nantglyn, Robert Davies, Nantglyn, has an englyn to the woodpecker:—
“I Gaseg y Drycin.”
“Och! rhag Caseg, grêg rwygiant,—y drycin,
Draw accw yn y ceunant,
Ar fol pren, uwch pen pant,
Cyn ’storm yn canu ’sturmant.”Barddoniaeth R. Davies, p. 61.
My friend Mr. Richard Williams, Celynog, Newtown, translates this stanza as follows:—
Ah! ’tis the hoarse note of the Woodpecker,
In yonder ravine,
On the round trunk of a tree, above the hollow,
Sounding his horn before the coming storm.Yellow Hammer. (Penmelyn yr Eithin).
There is a strange belief in Wales that this bird sacrifices her young to feed snakes.