is
sulphur colour; all the rest of the body black, with here and there
shades of brown. He has five or six long narrow black feathers on the
back of his head, which he erects at pleasure.

There is one more species of cassique in Demerara, which always prefers
the forest to the cultivated parts. His economy is the same as that of
the other cassiques. He is rather smaller than the last described bird.
His body is greenish, and his tail and rump paler than those of the
former. Half of his beak is red.

You would not be long in the forests of Demerara without noticing the
woodpeckers. You meet with them feeding at all hours of the day. Well
may they do so. Were they to follow the example of most of the other
birds, and only feed in the morning and evening, they would be often on
short allowance, for they sometimes have to labour three or four hours at
the tree before they get to their food. The sound which the largest kind
makes in hammering against the bark of the tree is so loud, that you
would never suppose it to proceed from the efforts of a bird. You would
take it to be the woodman, with his axe, trying by a sturdy blow, often
repeated, whether the tree were sound or not. There are fourteen species
here; the largest the size of a magpie, the smallest no bigger than the
wren. They are all beautiful; and the greater part of them have their
heads ornamented with a fine crest, movable at pleasure.

It is said, if you once give a dog a bad name, whether innocent or
guilty, he never loses it; it sticks close to him wherever he goes. He
has many a kick and many a blow to bear on account of it; and there is
nobody to stand up for him. The woodpecker is little better off. The
proprietors of woods in Europe have long accused him of injuring their
timber, by boring holes in it, and letting in the water, which soon rots
it. The colonists in America have the same complaint against him. Had
he the power of speech, which Ovid's birds possessed in days of yore, he
could soon make a defence. "Mighty lord of the woods," he would say to
man, "why do you wrongfully accuse me? why do you hunt me up and down to
death for an imaginary offence? I have never spoiled a leaf of your
property, much less your wood. Your merciless shot strikes me at the
very time I am doing you a service. But your short-sightedness will not
let you see it, or your pride is above examining closely the actions of
so insignificant a little bird