find another area with an adequate food supply 

 (Tanner 1942). 



Contents of three ivory-bUl stomachs from 

 Louisiana and Texas summarized by Cottam and 

 Knapper (1939) (including those reported by Beal 

 1911) were as follows: 46% of combined content 

 was of animal origin, 45.33% being long-horned 

 beetles (Cerambicidae), and 0.67% of engraver 

 beetles (Tomiscus sp.); 54% was of vegetable 

 origin, 14% being seeds of Magnolia grandiflora, 

 27% of Carya, 12.67% of seeds of poison ivy 

 {Rhus radicans), and 0.33% being fragments of 

 unidentified gall. In three stomachs from a Caro- 

 lina region, Wilson (1811) found large quantities 

 of large grubs fitting the description of some 

 larger larval Cerambycids. In two stomachs from 

 Louisiana, Goss (1859) found one large Cera m6yx 

 and the stones of cherries. In debris from an ivory- 

 bill nest in the Singer Tract, Louisiana, soon after 

 the young had left, Tanner (1942) found 1 frag- 

 ment of Elatrid larva; 21 mandibles of Cerambycid 

 larvae; 1 mandible of a Scarabaeid beetle larva, 

 and a few fragments of adult insects, probably 

 Coleoptera. E. A. Mcllhenny [in Bendire 1895), 

 said they fed on acorns. Alexander Sprunt, Jr., 

 in Tanner (1942), saw ivory -bills feeding on black 

 gum and tupelo berries. Probably, the seasons 

 when fruits or seeds are eaten are from late sum- 

 mer to early winter when they are most easily 

 available; stomachs with large percentages of 

 vegetable food were taken in November. Ivory -b ills 

 drink water from hollows in trees (Tanner 1942). 



C. p. bairdii. Their feeding habits are about 

 equally divided between pine and hardwood for- 

 ests, and they have been seen feeding on both 

 types of tree. They feed both by scaling bark and 

 by digging holes in wood, with the majority of 

 feeding signs of the scahng type. There are no re- 

 cords of the actual food eaten, but presumably it 

 consists of larvae of wood-boring beetles like 

 those preferred by American ivory-bills. Such in- 

 sects were found in trees used by the Cuban ivory- 

 bills. 



SHELTER REQUIREMENTS 



- C. p. principalis nests and roosts in holes in 

 large dead or living trees, usually hardwoods. 



C. p. bairdii requires holes in large dead pine 

 stubs for both nesting and roosting. 



NESTING OR BEDDING 



C. p. principalis. Allen and Kellogg (1937) 



quote Audubon who believed the nesting hole is 

 always made in the trunk of a live tree, generally 

 an ash orhackberry, and at great height. However, 

 they noted that there were records of nesting in 

 live cypress, partly dead oaks, a dead royal palm 

 stub, and an old and nccirly rotten white elm 

 stump, indicating as great a variety as nest sites 

 of the pileated woodpecker. Beyer (1900) found 

 a nest as low as 8 m in a living over-cup oak. 

 Allen and Kellogg (1937) found a nest in Florida 

 10 m up in a live cypress and three nests in Louis- 

 iana in oak and one in a red maple. Nest trees 

 were very large. One nest was in a dead pin oak 

 stub about 16 m high; the entrance hole was 13 

 cm high and 11.4 cm wide; depth of nest cavity, 

 47 cm, and diameter 20 cm at egg level (Allen 

 and Kellogg 1937). In Florida, height of nests 

 from the ground averaged 15 m (Tanner 1942) 

 with extremes of at least 8 m (Hoyt 1905) and 20 

 m (Ridgway 1898). In Louisiana, nests averaged 

 15.5 m and ranged from 12 to 21 m from ground, 

 all in dead trees or dead parts of living trees where 

 wood was a bit punky but still quite hard. The 

 average depth of all reliably measured nest cavities 

 is 48 cm (Tanner 1942). Nesting and roosting 

 holes of ivory -bills have oval or irregular entrances 

 measuring about 13 cm vertically and 10 cm across, 

 or about 2.5 cm larger than pileated woodpecker 

 entrance holes (Tanner 1942). 



Ivory-bills do not use old nesting holes, but 

 excavate new ones usually in different trees. One 

 roosting hole has never been seen occupied by 

 more than one bird even by a young one still in 

 the company of its parents. For at least 2 weeks 

 after leaving the nest, young roost in the open in 

 trees while the parents roost in holes. The birds 

 emerge from their roosting holes much later in 

 the morning than other woodpeckers. Then pairs 

 and young join together for their daily feeding 

 flights (Tanner 1942). 



C. p. bairdii nest and roost almost exclusively 

 in holes in old pines. Only one instance of a roost 

 hole in a hardwood has been reported. Nesting 

 and roosting sites were found in 16 pine trees 

 which contained 33 holes dug by ivory-bills 

 (Lamb 1957). Dennis (1948) found a nest about 

 10 m from the ground in a dead pine stub. The 

 opening was approximately 10.2 by 10.2 cm, 

 forming a rough square. Old holes found by Lamb 

 (1957) were all considerably lower than 10 m, 

 averaging about 6 m above ground. The pine stubs 

 used were never over 8 m tall. In the virgin forest 



