20 A RED-HEADED FAMILY. 



leisurely draughts of the saccharine blood of 

 the ready-tapped trees. I have seen them with 

 their bills stained purple to the nostrils with 

 the rich juice of the blackberry, and they quar- 

 rel from morning till night over the ripest 

 June-apples and reddest cherries, their noise 

 making a Bedlam of the fairest country or- 

 chard. 



The woodpecker family is scattered widely 

 in our country. In the West Canadian woods 

 one meets, besides a number of the commoner 

 species, Lewis' woodpecker, a large, beautiful, 

 and rare bird. The California species include 

 the Nuttall, the Harris, the Cape St. Lucas, the 

 white-headed, and several other varieties, all 

 showing more or less kinship to the ivory-bill. 

 Lewis's woodpecker shows almost entirely 

 black, its plumage giving forth a strong green- 

 ish or bluish lustre. The red on its head is 

 softened down to a fine rose-carmine. It is 

 a wild, wary bird, flying high, combining in 

 its habits the traits of both Hylotomus pikatus 

 and Camp ephilu s princip alls. 



In concluding this paper a general descrip- 

 tion of the 'male ivory-bill may prove accept- 

 able to those who may never be able to see 

 even a stuffed specimen of a bird which, taken 

 in every way, is, perhaps, the most interesting 

 and beautiful in America. In size 21 inches 

 long, and 33 in alar extent ; bill, ivory white, 

 beautifully fluted above, and two and a-half 

 inches long; head-tuft, or crest, long and 

 fine, of pure scarlet faced with black. Its 

 body-color is glossy blue-black, but down its 

 slender neck on each side, running from the 

 crest to the back, a pure white stripe contrasts 

 vividly with the scarlet and ebony. A mass 



