IN THE FLAT-WOODS. 25 



see and hear them. Henceforth Dryobates 

 borealis is a bird, and not merely a name. 

 This, as I have said, was among the 

 pines, before reaching the swamp. In the 

 swamp itself, there suddenly appeared from 

 somewhere, as if by magic (a dramatic en- 

 trance is not without its value, even out-of- 

 doors), a less novel but far more impressive 

 figure, a pileated woodpecker ; a truly splen- 

 did fellow, with the scarlet cheek-patches. 

 When I caught sight of him, he stood on one 

 of the upper branches of a tall pine, look- 

 ing wonderfully alert and wide-awake j now 

 stretching out his scrawny neck, and now 

 drawing it in again, his long crest all the 

 while erect and flaming. After a little he 

 dropped into the underbrush, out of which 

 came at intervals a succession of raps. I 

 would have given something to have had 

 him under my glass just then, for I had long 

 felt curious to see him in the act of chiseling 

 out those big, oblong, clean-cut, sharp-angled 

 " peck-holes " which, close to the base of the 

 tree, make so common and notable a feature 

 of Vermont and New Hampshire forests ; but, 

 though I did my best, I could not find him, 

 till all at once he came up again and took to 



