^0 GOLD-WINGED WOODPECKER. 



inhabits the country near the Cape of Good Hope, and resembles 

 the present, it is said, almost exactly in the color and form of its 

 bill, and in the tint and markings of its plumage, with this differ- 

 ence, that the mustaches are red instead of black, and the lower 

 side of the wings, as well as their shafts, are also red where the 

 other is golden yellow. It is also considerably 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 Buff on, 

 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 exa- 

 mined 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 mouldering ruins of an 

 old stump (the capital of a nation of pismires) more than is suffi- 

 cient for the wants of a whole week. He cannot be said to "lead 

 a mean and gloomy life, without an intermission 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 companions; 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 "ne- 

 cessity 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 snug chamber of his own con- 

 structing; or that "the narrow circumference of a tree circum- 

 scribes his dull round of life,^^ who, as seasons and inclination in- 

 spire, 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 softened by delicacy of taste,^^ because he so often varies 

 his bill of fare, occasionally preferring to animal food the rich milki- 



