Gecinus viridis. [Illustration: FIG. 61.--GREEN WOODPECKER. ⅙ natural size.] Upper parts olive-green; rump yellow; under parts greenish grey; crown, back of the head, and moustaches crimson; face black. _Female_: less crimson on the head; moustaches black. Length, thirteen inches. * * * * * The chief characteristic of this beautiful woodland bird is his extraordinary energy. His entire structure, from the straight, sharp, powerful bill, and long, barbed tongue, to the climbing feet and stiff tail-feathers, used as a support to the body when clinging vertically to the trunk of a tree, is admirably adapted to the laborious trade he follows. And this peculiar form has its correlative in a strength, boldness, and determination in attacking a hard piece of work that are nothing less than brilliant. One is astonished at the force of the sounding blows he delivers on the tough bark and wood in his search for hidden insects; yet this is one of the common, small, everyday tasks of his life, and not comparable to the huge labour of digging a breeding-hole deep into the heart of a large branch or trunk of a tree. This energy and intensity of life shows itself also in his motions, gestures, and language. His very qualities of eagerness and determination in splitting up the wood in which his prey lies concealed, and the loud racket he is compelled to make at such times, call upon him the undesirable attentions of the species that are his enemies: he must, when hammering on a tree, be exceedingly vigilant all the while, less some prowling sparrow-hawk or swift-descending falcon shall take him unawares. The wood he exerts his strength on does not absorb his whole attention: his eyes are all the time glancing this way and that, and on the slightest appearance of danger he is nimble as a squirrel to place the trunk or branch between himself and a possible enemy. After a few moments of hiding his red head becomes visible as he peeps cautiously round the trunk, and if the danger be then over he goes back to his task. In the presence of a winged enemy he finds his safety in clinging to the trunk, round which he can move so rapidly, as on the wing he is a heavy bird; but hawks are now rare in England, and his chief persecutors are men with guns.