BOSTON ZOOLOGICi\L SOCIETY. 4o 



It remained, however, for Audubon in 1831 to fix its 

 range with certainty. He sajs most emphatically that it 

 has never occurred in the Middle States 'Svithinthe memory 

 of man," but gives it as being found near the mouth of the 

 Ohio River, up the Mississippi as far as the mouth of the 

 Missouri, "west of this great river in all the dense forests 

 which border its tributar}' streams, even to the very decliv- 

 ities of the Rocky Mountains," and so on down to the Gulf 

 of Mexico. On the Atlantic it occurred as flir north as 

 Maryland but was rare in that state. It was most abundant 

 in the lower part of the Carolinas, in Georgia, Alabama, 

 Louisiana, and Mississippi, where it was a constant resident, 



It is fortunate for those of us who wish to know the 

 former range of this bird that Aububon was so particular 

 in defining it. For the Ivory-billed Woodpecker must have 

 disappeared very rapidly, since Professor Baird in 1 854 says 

 that it was then restricted to the Southern Atlantic and Gulf 

 States. 



I have t>:ood authoritv for saving that it occurred in 

 the heavily wooded portions of the State of Mississippi 

 twenty years ago, and it is quite possible that a few, still 

 lincrer there. If such be the case, however, it will be well 

 worthy of record. 



During my various visits to Florida I have been enabled, 

 by giving especial attention to this question, to ascertain its 

 range in that state with tolerable certainty. There is a 

 belt of heavily wooded country, either ''hummock" or 

 "cypress," extending from a few miles to the eastward of 

 the Swanee River, bordering the Gidf of Mexico, and stretch- 

 mcr otit to the nortliward about twenty miles, but widening 



to the eastward until it reaches the Withlocoochie River on 

 the south. On the St. Johns this belt of timber reaches its 

 maximum width, extending from within a few miles of Palat- 



