24 GOLDEN- WINGED WOODPECKER. 



less. With respect to the habits of this new species, we have no 

 particular account; but there is little doubt that they will be 

 found to correspond with the one we are now describing. 



The abject and degraded character which the count de JBuffon, 

 with equal eloquence and absurdity, has drawn of the whole tribe 

 of Woodpeckers, belongs not to the elegant and sprightly bird 

 now before us. How far it is applicable to any of them will be 

 examined hereafter. He is not " constrained to drag out an 

 insipid existence in boring the bark and hard fibres of trees to 

 extract his prey," for he frequently finds in the loose mould- 

 ering ruins of an old stump, (the capital of a nation of pismires) 

 more than is sufficient for the wants of a whole week. He can- 

 not be said to " lead a mean and gloomy life, without an inter- 

 mission of labour," who usually feasts by the first peep of dawn, 

 and spends the early, and sweetest hours of morning, on the 

 highest peaks of the tallest trees, calling on his mate or com- 

 panions; or pursuing and gamboling with them round the larger 

 limbs, and body of the tree, for hours together; for such are 

 really his habits. Can it be said that " necessity never grants 

 an interval of sound repose" to that bird, who, while other tribes 

 are exposed to all the peltings of the midnight storm, lodges dry 

 and secure in a sung chamber of his own constructing? or that 

 " the narrow circumference of a tree circumscribes his dull 

 round of life," who, as seasons and inclination inspire, roams 

 from the frigid to the torrid zone, feasting on the abundance of 

 various regions? Or is it a proof that " his appetite is never soft- 

 ened by delicacy of taste," because he so often varies his bill of 

 fare, occasionally preferring to animal food the rich milkiness 

 of young Indian corn, and the wholesome and nourishing ber- 

 ries of the Wild Cherry, Sour Gum, and Red Cedar? Let the 

 reader turn to the faithful representation of him given in the 

 plate, and say whether his looks be " sad and melancholy!" It 

 is truly ridiculous and astonishing that such absurdities should 

 escape the lips or pen of one so able to do justice to the respective 

 merits of every species; but Buffon had too often a favourite 

 theory to prop up, that led him insensibly astray; and so, for- 



