A RED-HEADED FAMILY. 39 



instead of the scarlet. I can think of nothing 

 in Nature more striking than the flash of color 

 this bird gives to the dreary swamp-landscape, 

 as it careers from tree to tree, or sits upon 

 some high skeleton cypress-branch and plies 

 its resounding blows. The species will prob- 

 ably be extinct within a few years.* 



* Since writing the foregoing, I have made several ex- 

 cursions in search of the ivory-bill. Early in January, 

 1885, I killed a fine male specimen in a swamp near 

 Bay St. Louis, Mississippi ; but was prevented, by an 

 accident, from preserving it or making a sketch of it. 



