European green woodpecker but is made sticky by secretions from the enlarged salivary glands. Heavy, prolonged snow cover makes feeding difficult for the green woodpecker and can result in high mortality, from which it may take 10 years for the population to recover. Ant nests can be located under the snow; one bird was observed to dig 85 cm to reach a nest. 'Professor Yaffle', the wooden bookend character in the 1974 children's animation series "Bagpuss", was based loosely upon the green woodpecker. 'Yaffle' was among many English folk names for the European green woodpecker relating to its laughing call; others include laughing
Proposals for an English Academy some initial success in promoting his school in King Street, London as chartered by William III, with a modernised curriculum. He proposed a tax on publications to support it, but was opposed in Parliament and met with serious resistance from the universities. At the same period Daniel Defoe in his "Essay upon Projects" had a section on academies. Jonathan Swift in his "Proposal for Correcting, Improving and Ascertaining the English Tongue", advocated an academy for regulating the English language. In the form of a call for a "national dictionary" to regulate the English language, on the French model, this conception