RED-HEADED WOODPECKER. 
153 
I 
receive their perfect plumag-e, and the male and 
®’'iele then differ only in the latter being rather smaller, 
its colours not quite so vivid ; both have the head 
neck deep scarlet ; the bill light blue, black towards 
extremity, and strong; back, primaries, wing- 
j^'^erts, and tail, blade, glossed with steel-blue ; rump, 
®'vcr part of the back, secondaries, and whole under 
fj'fts from the breast downward, white ; legs and feet, 
‘dsh green ; claws, light blue ; round the eye, a dusky 
pTuw skin, bare of feathers ; iris, dark hazel ; total 
nine inches and a half; extent, seventeen inches. 
Notwithstanding the cai'e which this bird, in com- 
with the rest of its genus, takes to place its young 
.^yoiul the reach of enemies, within the hollows of 
yet there is one deadly foe, against whose depre- 
ssions neither the height of the tree, nor the depth of 
j « cavity, is the least security. This is the black 
:{J*ke (coluber constrictor,) who frequently glides up 
;?« trunk of the tree, aud, like a skulking savage, enters 
g Woodpecker’s peaceful apartment, devours the eggs 
A i'elpless young, in s|)ite of the cries and ilutterings 
L. ^e parents; and, if the place be large enough, coils 
^•^nself up in the spot they occupied, where he will 
]j®'*'etimcs remain for severd days. The eager school- 
> after hazarding his ueck to reach the woodpecker’s 
u'* at the triumphant moment when he thinks the 
j,is own, and strips his arm, lanching it 
(®^n into the cavity, and grasping what he conceives 
“6 the callow young, starts with horror at the sight 
d; hideous snake, aiid almost drops from his giddy 
''•lacle, retreating down the tree with terror and 
j ^'-■'pitatiou. Several adventures of this kind have 
a?,®® to mv' knowledge ; and one of them that was 
'^^nded with serious consequences, where both snake 
l^oy fell to tlie ground ; and a broken thigh, and 
ly''S confinement, cured the adventurer completely of 
** ambition for robbing woodpecker’s nests. 
