MAY. 119 



C. — I saw a still finer species, the noble Pileated Wood- 

 pecker (P. Pileatus), with his black body, and white wings, 

 and high conical cap of deep scarlet. He was stripping the 

 bark from a dead spruce, in the black-timbered woods, and 

 seemed to enjoy the sport, as he laughed a good deal at it. 

 I wanted to spoil his tune, but could not get near enough to 

 shoot him. 



F. — The notes of the pileated woodpecker resemble the 

 loud horse-laugh of a person with a cracked voice, gradually 

 sinking, which makes the resemblance perfect ; those of the 

 Red-headed (P. Erythrocephalus), are a cackling repetition 

 of one sound. The pileated is not migratory, but is occa- 

 sionally seen in winter ; it is not however at all numerous at 

 any season. 



C. — On the willows and hazels in the marsh bordering 

 the river, was a flock of pretty birds, all over shining black, 

 except the shoulders of the wings, which are bright scarlet, 

 edged with whitish. I shot two of them. 



F. — It is the Redwinged Starling (Sturnus Predato- 

 rius) ; a bird much hated by the farmers of the neighbour- 

 ing States, by whom it is called *' Corn thief," on account of 

 its appearing in countless myriads in the fields of Indian 

 corn when it is soft, which it devours in immense quantities. 

 With us, however, they do not assemble in such numbers as 

 to be formidable ; a few flocks, and those not numerous, are 

 all that we usually see during the season. 



C. — They had a singular kind of crowing sound, rather 

 melancholy, and now and then opened their wings as they 

 sat on the trees. There were several among them, whose 

 plumage was black, mottled with white, which I take to 



have been females. These are all that I succeeded in 



procuring, but I saw several others that were new to me. 

 One in particular I very much wished to obtain. At 

 a very lonely part of the river, about a quarter of a mile 



