firmament, and I am deafened by the din of
the thunder. The tempestuous scene damps my spirits, and my horse sinks
under me at the tremendous peals, as I hasten on for the plain.

* * * * *

From his "Travels in the Carolinas, Florida," &c.

=_254._= THE WOOD PELICAN OF FLORIDA.

This solitary bird does not associate in flocks, but is generally seen
alone, commonly near the banks of great rivers, in vast marshes or
meadows, especially such as are caused by inundations, and also in the
vast deserted rice plantations: he stands alone on the topmost limb
of tall dead cypress trees, his neck contracted or drawn in upon his
shoulders, and beak resting like a long scythe upon his breast: in
this pensive posture and solitary situation, it looks extremely grave,
sorrowful, and melancholy, as if in the deepest thought.

* * * * *

=_Alexander Wilson, 1766-1813._= (Manual, p. 504.)

From the "American Ornithology."

=_255._= NEST OF THE RED-HEADED WOODPECKER.

Notwithstanding the care which this bird, in common with the rest of its
genus, takes to place its young beyond the reach of enemies, within
the hollows of trees, yet there is one deadly foe, against whose
depredations neither the height of the tree nor the depth of the cavity
is the least security. This is the blade snake, who frequently glides
up the trunk of the tree, and, like a skulking savage, enters the
woodpecker's peaceful apartment, devours the eggs or helpless young, in
spite of the cries and flutterings of the parents, and if the place be
large enough, coils himself up in the spot they occupied, where he will
sometimes remain for several days. The eager school-boy, after hazarding
his neck to reach the woodpecker's hole, at the triumphant moment when
he thinks the nestlings his own, and strips his arm, launching it down
into the cavity, and grasping what he conceives to be the callow young,
starts with horror at the sight of a hideous snake, and almost drops
from his giddy pinnacle, retreating down the tree with terror and
precipitation. Several adventures of this kind have come to my
knowledge; and one of them was attended with serious consequences, where
both snake and boy fell to the ground, and a broken thigh, and long
confinement, cured the adventurer completely of his ambition for robbing
woodpeckers' nests.

* * * * *

=_256._= THE WHITE-HEADED, OR