IN THE FLAT-WOODS. yA 
see and hear them. Henceforth Dryobates 
borealis is a bird, and not merely a name. 
This, as I have said, was among the 
pines, before reaching the swamp. In the 
swamp itself, there suddenly appeared from 
somewhere, as if by magic (a dramatic en- 
trance is not without its value, even out-of- 
doors), a less novel but far more impressive 
figure, a pileated woodpecker ; a truly splen- 
did fellow, with the scarlet cheek-patches. 
When I caught sight of him, he stood on one 
of the upper branches of a tall pine, look- 
ing wonderfully alert and wide-awake ; now 
stretching out his scrawny neck, and now 
drawing it in again, his long crest all the 
while erect and flaming. After a little he 
dropped into the underbrush, out of which 
came at intervals a succession of raps. I 
would have given something to have had 
him under my glass just then, for I had long 
felt curious to see him in the act of chiseling 
out those big, oblong, clean-cut, sharp-angled 
“¢ neck-holes ” which, close to the base of the 
tree, make so common and notable a feature 
of Vermont and New Hampshire forests ; but, 
though I did my best, I could not find him, 
till all at once he came up again and took to 
