WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 191 



three or four hours at the tree before they get to their food. 

 The sound which the largest kind makes in hammering 

 against the bark of the tree, is so loud, that you would 

 never suppose it to proceed from the efforts of a bird. You 

 would take it to be the woodman, with his axe, trying by a 

 sturdy blow, often repeated, whether the tree were sound or 

 not. There are fourteen species here ; the largest the size 

 of a magpie, the smallest no bigger than the wren. They 

 are all beautiful ; and the greater part of them have their 

 heads ornamented with a fine crest, movable at pleasure. 



It is said, if you once give a dog a bad name, whether 

 innocent or guilty, he never loses it. It sticks close to 

 him wherever he goes. He has many a kick and many 

 a blow to bear on account of it ; and there is nobody to 

 stand up for him. The woodpecker is little better off. 

 The proprietors of woods, in Europe, have long accused 

 him of injuring their timber, by boring holes in it, and 

 letting in the water, which soon rots it. The colonists in 

 America have the same complaint against him. Had he 

 the power of speech, which Ovid's birds possessed in days 

 of yore, he could soon make a defence. " Mighty lord of 

 the woods," he would say to man, " why do you wrongfully 

 accuse me ? why do you hunt me up and down to death 

 for an imaginary offence ? I have never spoiled a leaf of 

 your property, much less your wood. Your merciless shot 

 strikes me, at the very time I am doing you a service. 

 But your shortsightedness will not let you. see it, or your 

 pride is above examining closely the actions of so insignifi- 

 cant a little bird as I am. If there be that spark of feeling 

 in your breast which they say man possesses, or ought to 

 possess, above all other animals, do a poor injured creature 

 a little kindness, and watch me in your woods only for one 

 day. I never wound your healthy trees. I should perish 

 for want in the attempt. The sound bark would easily 



