THE GULF COAST OF FLORIDA 269 



his ear is assailed by the dismal croaking of innumerable frogs, 

 the hissing of serpents, or the bellowing of alligators ! Would 

 that I could give you an idea of the sultry pestiferous atmos- 

 phere that nearly suffocates the intruder during the meridian 

 heat of our dogdays, in those gloomy and horrible swamps ! 

 But the attempt to picture these scenes would be vain. Noth- 

 ing short of ocular demonstration can express any adequate 

 idea of them." 



Audubon found the ivory-bill breeding, and 

 became intimately acquainted with its home and 

 young. Few ornithologists of to-day have been 

 so fortunate. From my notes made at the time, 

 I copy as follows : — 



"To-day I found a nest of ivory-billed woodpeckers, and 

 obtained both parent birds and the single young which was 

 the occupant of the nest. The cavity for the nest was exca- 

 vated in a large cypress tree in the midst of a dense and 

 sombre swamp, the entrance to the nest being forty-one feet 

 from the level of the ground. The opening to the cavity was 

 oval in shape, about three and a half inches wide and four and 

 a half inches high. It seemed apparent that the same cavity 

 had been used before for a nesting place. It was cyHndrical, 

 and rather more than fourteen inches deep. The young bird 

 in the nest was a female, and though about one-third grown, 

 was as yet only slightly feathered, and had not opened its eyes. 

 The feathers of the first plumage were apparent, beginning to 

 cover the down, and were exactly the same in coloration as 

 those of the adult female bird." — Mss. Notes. 



So far as I am aware, this is the only recent 

 record of the finding of the nest of this bird, and 

 one of the few records that we have in regard to 



