323 

 niE nonv-iui.i.Ei) woodpeckek. 



Tliis bird has been aecunitely and plcasiuyly described by one of our poets ; — 



" Majestic bird ! the broad Ohio knows 

 Its prescnee w ell. Here, aud aloiif? the liaulvH 

 Of Mississippi, whence luxuriant rise 

 Towering- to heaven the tall and graceful pines, 

 And cypress-trees from black and gloomy swamps 

 Prodigious of extent : here are its favourite haunts : 

 Among these ti'ces — some in maturity, 

 Aud others overgrown with verdant moss, 

 Of every leaf dismantled, standing forth, 

 By Time's impartial hand memorialised, 

 As emblems apt of that miwished decay 

 AVhieli all that lives, alas .' must undergo. 



Here, or at times, perchance, it may be seen 

 Sitting, where stretched below huge lifeless trunks 

 Protrude themsches above the slimy ooze. 

 Whose sm-faee fair conceals the deep morass ; 

 Beneath a carpet smooth of emerald tints. 

 From Natiu-e's skilfid hand in colours true. 

 And decorated o"er with patterns rare, 

 Wrought in lier ^natchless looms— the blue tiag gay, 

 Or water-Lily with its amj^le leaves. 

 And blossoms exquisite of dazzling white. 

 And other plants aquatic— wily lurk 

 Serpents, and le.ithsonie frogs, and pestilence. 

 And poisonous aUigators, watching for their prey : 

 Anou, on topmost bough of some tall tree, 

 Noble of mien, as monarch of the woods, 

 '\\'e see him perched, this interesting bird. 

 Asking no shelter of the branches green 

 Of waving pine-trees — cool, delicious shade — 

 But sitting calmly in his solitude, 

 As if luxmiatuig in his winged power. 

 To soar above the reach of human kind. 

 And from these heights to gaze on all below. 



Sometimes from forth these savage wilds are heard 



The pleasure-notes of our strange solitaii'e, 

 Resounding trumpet-like, loud, long, and shrill, 

 AVhilst death-like silence reigns sublimely round : 

 When tired with flight or work he here rcpaii-s 

 To rest awhile from labom-, and with song — 

 Strange song — but to his ear, by natm'c formed 

 To love such, music, melody divine. 

 Not thus, in ease luxurious, does he li\'c, 

 '\^'asting his days or hours in idleness. 

 For he has much to do, industrious bii'd ; 

 Wherever he has been his work is traced ; 

 Cart-loads of bark lie scattered round the roots 

 Of mighty pine-trees, and from the trunk itself 

 Chips in such quantity as axe-men true 

 Had wrought there for a morning. Yet not so ; 

 His choice of trees engages not their powers ; 

 Those only on whose limbs disease has seized, 

 Whose substance has been penetrated oft 

 By crew insidious of the insect tribe. 

 Who leave behind deposit poisonous. 



Y 2 



