THE PILEATED WOODPECKER. 115 



onward. What a power in his pectoral muscles! 

 Alighting on an oak and glancing about, his eagle eye 

 soon perceives me a supposed enemy. His crest, 

 redder than arterial blood, is erected, stands straight 

 up. He hops upward along the branch, gives an in- 

 voluntary peck or two, but all the time I am the 

 cynosure of his eagle-like glances. He moves part 

 way around the limb on which he rests, then, as I 

 take a step forward to get a better view, he is away 

 in that strong, unerring, galloping flight, to the 

 deeper shades of the forest. A few moments later 

 I see another. Here in the forest primeval they hold 

 their own. Here they cope with all enemies. Here 

 they fight successfully the battle of life. Their ease 

 of movement, their independence, puts, for the time 

 being, new hope in my heart, new courage in my soul. 

 Why may not I be as full of spirits, as free of flight, 

 as independent, as this creature of the air, this wood- 

 pecker, the pileated ? 



Yesterday afternoon I ran across a new locust in 

 the old orange orchard, where I have found the first 

 specimens of most of the Orthopterans I have taken. 

 The males were most abundant; the females just 

 moulting for the last time. It proves to be Melano- 

 plus propinquus McNeill, closely allied to the com- 

 mon northern M. femur-rubrum DeG. It is a slender 

 bodied, long winged species, dull in color, but grace- 

 ful in movement. They are active leapers, flying 

 noiselessly for several rods, and then settling down 



