European green woodpecker though the latter is smaller and more slender with narrower wings and longer tail. The closely related, very similar Levaillant's woodpecker occurs only in north-west Africa. The European green woodpecker is a member of the order Piciformes, the woodpecker family Picidae and the genus Picus. It was first described by Linnaeus in 1758. The scientific name is derived from the Greek "pikos", meaning 'woodpecker', and Latin "viridis", 'green'. There are four subspecies, with subtle and mostly clinal differences between them. In a recent study based on mitochondrial DNA analysis of subspecies by Perktaş, Barrowclough and Groth, it has been proposed
The Woodpecker Song The song is not The Woody Woodpecker Song composed later in the 1940s by George Tibbles and Ramey Idriess and used in the Woody Woodpecker cartoon series. The Woodpecker Song "The Woodpecker Song" ("Reginella Campagnola") is originally an Italian song. The music was written by in 1939, while the Italian lyrics were written by Bruno Cherubini (pseudonym "C. Bruno"). The English lyrics were written by Harold Adamson. The song became a hit in 1940, recorded by Glenn Miller and His Orchestra, The Andrews Sisters, and Kate Smith in 1940. The Glenn Miller recording on RCA Bluebird featuring Marion Hutton on