104 
A FEATHERED FRIEND. 
Still further southward, to Guiana and Brazil. The farthest journey is 
nothing to this swift- winged bird, who accomplishes a mile per minute. 
His song in spring and summer is a sweet, low, oft-repeated, and 
agreeable warble, which wins upon the ear. In his motions and gene- 
ral character, especially his goodwill to man, he greatly resembles our 
English robin. And now for a description of him. Fancy a gentle, 
graceful creature, six inches and three-quarters long, with wings very 
full and broad ; clothe all the upper part of the body in a rich sky- 
blue livery, dashed with gleams of purple ; paint the bill and the legs 
black ; the shafts of the wing and tail feathers black ; the throat, neck, 
breast, and sides, chestnut; colour the tips of the wings a dusky black; 
the under part of the body white. Such is the renowned bluebird, a 
great favourite with the American poets. 
Woodpeckers are plentiful in the American 
woods. They resemble one another so closely in 
tlieir habits, that to describe one is to describe 
all. As the typical species we may take, per- 
li;ij)s, the ivory-billed, who has some pretensions 
to be regarded as one of the artists of the Bird 
World. Assuredly he stands pre-eminent above 
the rest of his tribe, distinguished by his carmine 
crest, his brilliant eye, his bill of polished ivory. 
The Indians place a high value on his head and 
