on 10 December 1966, one was seen by John 

 Dennis; there are also several other probable re- 

 cords from theNechesRiver Valley (Dennis 1967). 



A sound recording of ivory-bill call notes was 

 made at Stanford Preserve on Village Creek, north 

 of Beaumont, Texas, 25 February 1968 by Helen 

 and Peter Isleib of Cordova, Alaska, and John V. 

 Dennis. The recording is now in possession of the 

 National Geo.graphic Society. Isleib found bill 

 marks on bark -striped trees nearby which measured 

 the same as the tip of ivory-bill's bill rather than 

 that of a pileated woodpecker, according to Alex- 

 ander Wetmore (Peter Isleib pers. comm.). The 

 sound recording was analyzed by Peter Paul 

 Kellogg {in lit. 14 February 1969) at Cornell 

 University Library of Natural Sounds and by 

 John W. Hardy, Bioacoustics Laboratory, Florida 

 State University, and both thought it sounded 

 very much like the call of an ivory-bill, although 

 Hardy (1975) believed that one of the call notes 

 of a blue jay was possible. 



On 22 May 1971, 2 ivory -bills were sighted 

 and one was photographed in the Atchafalaya 

 River swamp west of Baton Rouge, La. by an un- 

 identified dog trainer. The beginnings of a hole 

 and fresh chips on the ground under the place the 

 bird was photographed were found (George H. 

 Lowery,Jr. pers. comm., Stewart 1971). 



James Tanner and PaulSykesin 1968 searched 

 the same areas in the Neches River valley, Texas, 

 where John Dennis and others reported evidence 

 of ivory-bills in 1966, with negative results with 

 respect to sightings, sound or indication of feed- 

 ing (Sykes 1968, Tanner in lit. 6 March 1968). 



C. p. bairdii. Demiis (1948) found 3 Cuban 

 ivory-bills, 2 of them a mated pair that were in- 

 cubating, in April 1948, in the Sierra de Moa, 

 Oriente Province, Cuba, and heard of another 

 group of 6 being seen there in 1941. 



Lamb (1957) found 4 pairs in the Moa region 

 and found another area supporting 2 pairs farther 

 inland at a higher elevation, between the Moa 

 and Punta Gorda Rivers, but with identical habi- 

 tat (pine forest). In summary. Lamb (1957) esti- 

 mated the number of Cuban ivory-bills extant 

 in July of 1956 as 6 pairs or 12 individuals, all 

 between the watersheds of the Moa-Cubanas 

 Rivers to the west and the Punta Gorda River to 

 the east, along the north coast of Oriente Pro- 

 vince, and in the extreme headwaters of the Cale- 

 tura River, a large tributary of the Moa River, and 

 in the headwaters of the JaquEuii River, a tribu- 



Xaxy of the Toa River, and on the divide between 

 the Toa and Moa Rivers. The population density 

 was computed as about 40.2 km^ per pair, and 

 the smallest area estimated for a single pair was 

 19.3 km^ . Observations were made during March, 

 June, and early July. 



More recent sightings include 2 south of 

 Cupeyal in late 1967, a female northwest of 

 Cupeyalin February 1968, and a female at Yateras 

 in May 1972. All are in the Moa-Guantanamo 

 region, Oriente Province. Certainly no more than 

 8 pairs still exist and probably fewer than 6 (L. S. 

 Varona 1974, and O. H. Garrido 1974 in King 

 1978). 



REPRODUCTION 



C. p. principalis. In the Florida region, most 

 nests have been in living or dead cypress, but also 

 in bay and cabbage palm (Tanner 1942). Thomp- 

 son (1896) said ivory-bills nested in long-dead 

 pine trees in the Okefenokee Swamp region. In 

 northern Louisiana, Tanner (1942) found nests in 

 red maple, sweet gum, and Nuttall's oak. In the 

 same region, Beyer (1900) found nests in Ameri- 

 can elm and overcup oak. In southern Louisiana, 

 Mcllhenny in Bendire (1895) said birds built in 

 cypress or tupelo, preferably partly dead. Audu- 

 bon (1842) thought they preferred hackberry 

 trees for nesting. 



The presence of eggs has been recorded on 

 the following dates: Florida (4 records), 4 March 

 to 19 April; Louisiana (5 records), 6 March to 19 

 May; Georgia (2 records) 6 and 10 April; Texas 

 (2 records) 11 April and 3 May (Arthur Allen in 

 Bent 1939). Time of nesting is evidently irregular. 

 Scott (1881) collected an incubating female in 

 Florida 20 January 1880. Scott (1888) found a 

 nest containing a one-third grown young 17 

 March 1887. Ridgway (1898) collected a male 

 that left the nest hole on 15 February 1898. Hoyt 

 (1905) noted that nesting began in the latter part 

 of January and eggs were laid by 10 February. 

 Tanner in Bent (1939) noted young leaving the 

 nest on 30 March 1937 in Louisiana, and appar- 

 ently the same pair had young in the last week in 

 February 1938. In contrast, there are 10 records 

 of April nesting, 5 for May and 1 (Beyer 1900) of 

 a young just out of nest in July. The later records 

 might represent second attempts at nesting. 

 Florida birds, in general, start nesting earlier than 

 those in Louisiana (Bent 1939). There is no cor- 

 relation between the erratic timing of nesting and 



