36 



THE OSPREY. 



was fortunately able to reach camp before my 

 companions h;id started in search of nie, al- 

 though tliey had i-attn breakfast and were 

 ready to depart. Feeling-, myself, the urgent 

 need' of something to eat (a single pancake 

 and cup of eoH'ee being all that I had partaken 

 during the past thirty-six hours), the events of 

 the previous night and preceding afternoon 

 were excitedly "discussed while this matter 

 was being atttended to; my companions told 

 how they had fired guns all night long and set 

 tire to palmetto trees, while I told them of my 

 experiences. .'V strong wind from the wrong 

 direction and the intervening woods had pre- 

 vented me from hearing or seeing their sig- 

 nals. The good news of the discovery of the 

 Ivory-bill was an offset to the rest, and when 

 my hunger had been satisfied we all started 

 for the place where I had seen the bird the 

 previous evening. Arriving there, a pair were 

 discovered and the male shot by my com- 

 panion. Mr. E. ]). Lucas, the female escaping. 

 No more were seen that day, but returning 

 the following day, another pair, with their 

 nest, were found in the same locality. I shot 

 the male as he flew from the nest, but the fe- 

 male ke)it out of sight in the thick, leafy 

 growth farther back in the swamp, her pres- 

 ence being made known by her occasional call 

 notes. After securing the male T hid myself 

 in a group of large cypress knees in full view 

 of the hole and within range of it, and for sev- 

 eral hours patiently awaited the arrival of the 

 female: but she was too sagacious to appear. 

 T picked up a stick and rapped loudly upon a 

 cypress knee; but Mrs. Ivory-bill was not to 

 be deceived in that way. A male Pileated 

 Woodpecker responded instantly, however, and 

 alighting upon a dead stump within ten feet 

 of my hidiTig place, amused me by his funny 

 efforts to discover the other woodpecker 

 whenever I would slyly reach behind and tap 

 the knee with my stick. He presently "caught 

 on" to the trick, however, and decamped. 



Becoming fiu,ally tired of waiting for her to 

 come, T concluded fo try to stalk the female 

 Ivory-iiill, who could be located by her occa- 

 sional calling from the thick growth. She led 

 me a will-o-the-wisp chase through the jungle, 

 and T was reluctantly forced to give up the 

 pursuit. On this, as on other occasions, every 

 large woodpecker heard tapping was cau- 

 tiously stalked, but in every instance the bird 

 proved to be the common Pileated species. 



T>uring our perambulations in this locality 

 the nest of the other pair was found, the two 

 being not more than two hundred yards apart, 

 but the female (the male having been killed 

 the day before) was neither seen nor heard, 

 and probably had left the vicinity. 



As the result of my three trips to southern 

 Florida, I feel sure that the Ivory-billed Wood- 

 pecker is not only a rare, but very local bird 

 in that jiJirt of the State, and that it only oc- 

 curs in large ey])ress swamps or their imme- 

 diate vicinity, its true home being within the 

 cypress, and its feeding grounds the cabbage 

 palmetto and live-oak hammocks just outside. 

 Although a far more powerfid bird, the Ivory- 

 bill looks no larger at a distance than the 

 Pileated Woodpecker, but its color, its actions 

 (particularly its manner of flight), and its 

 notes are so totally different that once seen 

 it need never be mistaken for that species, or 

 vice versa. The Pileated Woodpecker is a 

 noisy, active bird, always in evidence from 

 its loud yelping or cackling notes or its rest- 

 less movements. The Ivory-bill, on the other 

 hand, is comiiaratively quiet and secluded, and 

 its notes would not attract attention except 

 from one keenly alert for new sounds, being 

 notable for their nasal tone and perfect mo- 

 notony rather than any other quality. In 

 fact, so far as my own experience indicates, 

 the notes of the Ivory-bill are not as loud as 

 those of the Ped-bellied Woodpecker, as I was 

 convinced by hearing them both at the same 

 tiine. They resemble nothing else so much as 

 ♦he toot of a child's penny trumpet, as de- 

 scribed by Wilson, or a false high note on a 

 clarionet, as .Audubon describes it, repeated 

 three or more times (like pait. pait, pait), with 

 absolute monotony; but instead of being au- 

 dible at a distance of half a mile, as .\udnbon 

 states, I am sure that those heard by me vyould 

 have been inaudible beyond half that distance. 



The flight of the Ivory-bill is very accurately 

 described by Audubon, and is very different 

 indeed from that of the Pileated Woodpecker. 

 The former may be eoni|iared with the flight 

 of the Hairy Woodpecker, but is even more 

 bold and sweeping; the latter, to my eye. is 

 more like the flight of the Belted Kingfisher. 



The two nests discovered were precisely 

 alike in essential particulars as to situation. 

 Both were near the upper extremity of tall, 

 straight, live cypress trunks, both on the south 

 side, and in neither case did the trunk lean 

 from the perpendicular, nor was the hole 

 placed beneath the protection of a large 

 branch. That shown in the accompanying il- 

 lustration (see frontispiece) was about fi.'i or 

 70 feet up (the lower part of the same tree is 

 shown in the middle of the other view.page — ) 

 while the other was about SO feet from the 

 base of the tree. Having no ropes or other 

 appliances for climbing, it is needless to say 

 no attempt was made to reach either nest. 



