area, holes were closer to 9 m from ground and 

 one was nearly 18 m. Measurements of a female's 

 roost entrance were 15.6 cm (width) by 24.1 cm 

 (height); inside diameter of the cavity was 25.4 

 cm and depth of cavity from entrance to bottom 

 was 32 cm. 



RITUAL REQUIREMENTS 



A pair of C. p. principalis was observed by 

 Allen and Kellogg (1937) to clasp bills, evidently 

 as part of courtship behavior. Tanner (1942) ob- 

 served a similar event. He also described soft con- 

 versational notes by both members of a pair when 

 they exchanged places on the nest. The drumming 

 display consists of a double tap instead of the 

 multiple taps or drum-roll of other North Ameri- 

 can woodpeckers (Tanner 1942). 



POPULATION NUMBERS AND TRENDS 



C. p. principalis. Earlier accounts gave no ac- 

 curate or definite statements of abundance, but 

 indicated that it never was common. An excep- 

 tion was Audubon (1842) who said it was "very 

 abundant along the Buffalo Bayou (near Hous- 

 ton?), Texas." Audubon's "very abundant" may 

 have meant compared with ivory-bills in other 

 localities, where Audubon usually described the 

 species as quite rare (Tanner 1942). Arthur T. 

 Wayne and his hunters collected 5 ivory-bills 

 in California Swamp, 97 km (58 mi) south of 

 Old Town, Florida and saw 4 more several days 

 after the fifth one was collected. The following 

 year, 1893, five more were collected from that 

 swamp. Later observations indicate that those 

 10 birds were practically all that were present in 

 that area of 154 km^ . In vicinity of the Wacissa 

 River, Florida, in 1894 Wayne collected 19 ivory- 

 bills and some persisted there until about 1937. 

 On that basis. Tanner (1942) estimated that there 

 were probably about 12 pairs in that 188 km^ 

 swampy area, or 1 pair per 16 km^ . Wayne (1910) 

 stated that he saw 200 ivory-bills in Florida dur- 

 ing the years 1892 to 1894. In the Singer Tract of 

 about 300 km^ of virgin forest in Louisiana, in 

 1934, there were about 7 pairs, or 1 pair per 43 

 sq km. Total population in all areas in 1939 was 

 estimated at about 24 individuals (Tanner 1942). 



The greatest distance a pair traveled from the 



roosting area in Singer Tract in breeding season 

 was 2 km (Tanner 1942). Birds of the Singer 

 Tract appeared to be sedentary, with ranges up to 

 6 km or more across. However, birds in other 

 areas appear to wander considerable distances, 

 probably in response to the availability of food 

 (Tanner 1942) near the nesting site. 



Bark-stripping from recently dead pines, pos- 

 sibly the work of ivory-bills, was seen along Men- 

 ard, Big Sandy, and Village Creeks; along the 

 Neches River north and northwest of Beaumont; 

 and near Votaw and Silsbee, Texas, in December 

 1973 (Orie L. Loucks, Prof, of Botany, U. of 

 Wisconsin in lit. 17 March 1975). 



On 22 May 1976, one ivory-bill was reported 

 near the mouth of Wolf Creek, flying across 

 Magnolia Ridge Road north of Beaumont, Texas 

 (William B. Mounsey, University of the Wilderness 

 ms. report, 4 Sept. 1976). 



There were repeated reports of sightings of 

 ivory-bills in swamps along the Congaree and 

 Wataree Rivers, South Carolona, during the per- 

 iod 1966-67; John V. Dennis (Unpubl.) believed 

 these to be valid in part. 



Herbert Stoddard saw a pair in beetle-killed 

 pines near Thomasville, Georgia, probably in 

 1958 Q. V. Dennis ms. 1976). On 3 and 4 March 

 1950, Eastman reported seeing a male and female 

 ivory-bill on the Chipola River in northwestern 

 Florida, and in April 1950 Dennis heard one near 

 the same place (Dennis 1967, J. V. Dennis ms. 

 1976). 



On 28 Aug. 1966, Bedford P. Brown J. and 

 Jeffrey R. Sanders, Chicago bird watchers, heard 

 the distinctive call notes and saw 2 female ivory- 

 bills on Boiling Creek, a tributary of the Yellow 

 River at the Elgin Air Force Base in northwestern 

 Florida;they reported the sighting to J. V. Dennis, 

 who tried unsuccessfully to find the birds again 

 (Dennis 1967, Dennis 1976). 



A feather from a cavity of a wind-blown tree 

 northwest of Lake Okeechobee, Florida, around 

 1965, was identified by Alexander Wetmore and 

 John Aldrich as that of an ivory-bill. However, 

 the white patch on the feather was stained brown, 

 indicating it had been in the tree hole a long time 

 Q. W. Aldrich pers. comm., Agey and Heinzman 

 1971). 



Near the Neches River north of Beaumont, 

 Texas, above Dam B Reservoir, in April 1966, 

 one was seen by Mrs. Olga Hooks Lloyd, bird 

 watcher of Beaumont, and again in the same area 



