GOLD-WINGED WOODPECKER. 



47 



about this time; and the farmer, suspecting what is going on, steals 

 thro among the rows with his gun, bent on vengeance^ and forget-^ 

 ful of the benevolent sentiment of the poet;^that 



Just as wide of justice he must fall * 



Who thinks all made for One, not one for alL 



But farmers in general are not much versed in poetry, and pretty 

 well acquainted with the value of corn, from the hard labour re- 

 quisite in raising it. 



In rambling thro the woods one day, I happened to shoot one 

 of these birds, and wounded him slightly in the wing. Finding 

 him in full feather, and seemingly but little hurt, I took him home, 

 and put him into a large cage, made of willows^ intending to keep 

 him in my own room, that we might become better acquainted. As 

 soon as he found himself inclosed on all sides^ he lost no time in 

 idle fluttering, but throwing himself against the bars of the cage^ 

 began instantly to demolish the willows^ battering them with great 

 vehemence, and uttering a loud piteous kind of cackling, similar to 

 that of a hen when she is alarmed, and takes to wing. Poor baron 

 Trenck never laboured with more eager diligence at the walls of 

 his prison than this son of the forest in his exertions for liberty; 

 and he exercised his powerful bill with such force, digging into the 

 sticks, seizing and shaking them so from side to side, that he soon 

 opened for himself a passage ; and tho I repeatedly repaired the 

 breach, and barricadoed every opening in the best manner I could, 

 yet on my return into the room I always found him at large, climb- 

 ing up the chairs, or running about the floor, where from the dex- 

 terity of his motions, moving backwards, forwards, and sideways 

 with the same facility, it became difficult to get hold of him again. 

 Having placed him in a strong wire cage, he seemed to give up all 

 hopes of making his escape, and soon became very tame ; fed on 

 young ears of Indian corn; refused apples, but ate the berries of 



