LETTERS FROM ALABAMA. 
9e3 
the same name, although they differ materially. 
Neither species can he considered rare, but the 
Pileated is much the more common of the two ; few 
days elapse without my seeing one or more, and 
hearing their loud cachinnations, as I wend my way 
to and from the school. They are not very shy, 
and it is not at all difficult to get near them ; but 
they are cunning enough to keep on the opposite 
side of the tree. I have often been amused to 
observe the skill with which they keep the trunk or 
branch between themselves and me, moving round 
as I move, and now and then peeping the scarlet 
crown round the edge to reconnoitre. By conceal- 
ing oneself behind a tree, however, and by waiting 
patiently a few minutes, one may have a fair sight 
of them. When far up a tree, they are not so 
cautious. The tail of all the woodpecker tribe, 
being used as a support in the perpendicular posi- 
tion so common to them, is very hard and stiff, 
and the shafts of the feathers are pointed, and 
extend beyond the vanes. These tips I have seen 
quite clogged up with turpentine resembling pitch, 
accumulated in the bird’s frequent visits to the 
trunk of the pitch-pine. 
A singularly interesting fact in entomology fell 
under my observation a day or two since. There 
is a small river called Mush Creek, which darkly 
pm’sues its tortuous course through the forests here- 
about, and falls into Cedar Creek, a tributary of 
the Alabama. In several of its windings it ap- 
proaches near to the school-house, sometimes nar- 
rowed to a brawling brook, at other times widening 
into little still ponds and quiet bays. I was 
standing on the bank of one of these little smooth 
bays, whither I had resorted for the sake of the 
