The Bird Book 



the advent of spring, when the trees begin to put 

 forth their fresh green leaves ! The companies of 

 birds break up, and each pair begins to think of 

 setting up house. The Summer Migrants gradu- 

 ally return to their old haunts. Chaffinches utter 

 their joyous love songs, and the more stolid 

 Greenfinches call each other by the Christian 

 name, " Jo-ey, Jo-ey." The woodlands are alive 

 with music ; Blackbirds, Thrushes, Wrens and 

 Robins join in chorus with the Nightingales and 

 Blackcaps, and all the meaner songsters give of 

 their best. Above all there rings out every now 

 and again the loud laugh of the Green Wood- 

 pecker, or we may hear his tapping, as he drills a 

 hole for his nest in some decaying tree. So 

 engrossed is he in his task, that we may creep up 

 quietly, and watch him at work, without his being 

 aware of our presence. In general, however, he 

 is an extremely shy bird, and, conscious perhaps 

 of his brilliant plumage, he quickly slips round 

 to the opposite side of the tree on the approach of 

 a would-be observer, who, after cautiously steal- 

 ing to the spot, is often mortified to hear a 

 mocking laugh proceed from another tree a few 

 hundred yards away. 



The colouring of the Green Woodpecker, 

 though so brilliant that it gives the bird an almost 

 foreign appearance, harmonises to a far greater 

 degree with its surroundings than would be 

 expected. Its back is olive green and the folded 



54 



