...entirely preoccupied by the appearance of a large and colorful woodpecker which busily climbed up the slender trunk of a birch tree and looked anxiously from behind it to right and left like a musician looking out from behind the neck of his double-bass.

—Turgenev, First Love, tr. Richard Freeborn

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The Warm South

Exists.

What goes on

Texts and images copyright (C) 2022 Pauline Kerschen. Layout adapted from the Single A Tumblr theme by businessbullpen. The Greater Roadrunner (Geococcyx californianus) has zygodactylic feet, leaving X-shaped tracks with ambiguous direction. The Pueblo and Hopi used the X symbol to mislead evil spirits. Border folklore in the early twentieth century held that a roadrunner would lead a lost traveler back to his path. In Mexico the roadrunner is known as paisano, countryman.