68 A NATURE WOOING. 



are before me, flitting up and down and over and over 

 in serial courtship. 



A large pileated woodpecker moves in swift, gal- 

 loping flight from the side of a dead hickory, where 

 he has been prodding for large red ants, to the top of 

 a lofty pine. There he" pauses, glances askance at 

 me, the intruder on his domain, then utters his shrill, 

 resounding call, which echoes far and wide through- 

 out the forest. An answering call is soon returned 

 from the northward, upon hearing which he wings his 

 way in the direction from whence it came. 



March 16, 1899. It pays to take little trips to one 

 side of the beaten pathway. This morning I went 

 into the brambles and worked for fifteen minutes 

 about some old decaying pine logs. The result was a 

 "mule killer/' or vinegerone, two true scorpions and 

 a centipede all "sure death" to the natives of this 

 region. 



The vinegerone, or whip scorpion, Thelyphonus gi- 

 ganteus Lucas, possesses eight legs and belongs to the 

 group Pedipalpi, of the order Arachnida. It is, there- 

 fore, allied to the spiders, mites and scorpions, more 

 especially to the latter. It is a hideous, dark brown, 

 crab-like creature, two and a half inches in length, 

 with a long and very slender, many-jointed telson, 

 like the lash of a whip, attached to the end of the ab- 

 domen. The palpi are much enlarged, bear several 

 coarse teeth, and end in more or less perfectly formed 

 pincers. The front pair of legs are much longer and 



