A RED-HEADED FAMILY. 11 



castle of medieval days. A twelfth-century 

 bandit nobleman might have gloried in trigging 

 himself in such apparel as my ivory-billed 

 woodpecker wore. What a perfect athlete he 

 appeared to be, as he braced himself for an 

 effort which was to generate a force sufficient 

 to hurl his heavy head and beak back and 

 forth at a speed of about twenty-eight strokes 

 to the second ! 



All of our woodpeckers, pure and simple 

 that is, all of the species in which the wood- 

 pecker character has been preserved almost 

 unmodified have exceedingly muscular heads 

 and strikingly constricted necks; their beaks 

 are nearly straight, wedge-shaped, fluted or 

 ribbed on the upper mandible, and their nos- 

 trils are protected by hairy or feathery tufts. 

 Their legs are strangely short in appearance, 

 but are exactly adapted to their need, and their 

 tail-feathers are tipped with stiff points. These 

 features are all fully developed in the Campe- 

 philus prinripalis, the bill especially showing a 

 size, strength and symmetrical beauty truly 

 wonderful. 



The stiff pointed tail-feathers of the wood- 

 pecker serve the bird a turn which I have nev- 

 er seen noted by any ornithologist. When 

 the bird must strike a hard blow with its bill, 

 it does not depend solely upon its neck and 

 head; but, bracing the points of its tail-feath- 

 ers against the tree, and rising to the full 

 length of its short, powerful legs, and drawing 

 back its body, head, and neck to the farthest 

 extent, it dashes its bill home with all the 

 force of its entire bodily weight and muscle. I 

 have seen the ivory-bill, striking thus, burst 

 off from almost flinty-hard dead trees frag- 



