28 



THE OOLOGIST. 



though seekhig then- food iu places beueath 

 the notice of their ^jreat proj^enitor, have 

 preserved iu a marked degree an outline of 

 the ivory-bill's color-masses, degenerate 

 though they are. The dwarfish, iusiguifi- 

 caut looking PicuK puhenccnx pecking awfiy 

 at the stem of a dead iron- weed to get the 

 minute larvie that may be iinliedded iu the 

 pith, when compared wi h (Uimpephihix 

 pritfipalix drumming ou the bole of a giant 

 <-ypres^-tree, is like a Digger Indian when 

 catalogued iu a column with men like Goethe 

 and fxlad^tone, Napoleon and Lincoln. 



I have baen informsd th it the ivory-bdl 

 is occasionally found iu the Ohio valley: 

 but I hiive never been ablp to discover it 

 north of the Cumberland range of mouutai.s. 

 Jt IS a swamp bird, or rather it is the bird 

 of the high timber that grows in the low 

 wet soil; its principal food is a large tiat- 

 headt'd timljer-worm, known in the South 

 as borer or xair-ironn, which it discovers V)y 

 ear and reaches by d.ligent and tremendous- 

 ly effective pecking. A Cracker deer- 

 stalker vvh(mi I met at Blackshear, Georgia, 

 gave an amusing account of an experience 

 he had had in the swamps. He said: 



"I had turned in late, and got to sleep ou 

 a tussock under a big pine, . an' slep' tell 

 suuuiJ. WuU, es ther" I laid flat er my 

 bai''k an' er snoriu' away, ktrwhack sumpen 

 tuck me in the face an' eyes, jes' like sj)aidc- 

 iii' er baby, an' I wiik up with er gret chunk 

 er wood ercross my nose, an' er blame ole 

 woodcock jest er whangin' erway uj) in thet 

 pine. My nose hit bled an' bled, an' I lied 

 er good mint er shoot thet air bird, but I 

 cudn't stan' the exxjense er the thing. 

 Powder'u' lead air mighty costive. Anyhow 

 I don't s'pose 'at the ole woodcock knovved 

 at hit'd drapped thet air frayginent onto me. 

 Ef hit'd er 'peared like's ef hit wer' 'joyin' 

 th(- j"ke any, I wud er shot hit all ter pieces 

 ef 1 d er hed ter lived ou turpentime all 

 winter!" 



Of the American AVoodjiecker there are 

 more than thirty varieties, I believe, nearly 

 every one of which bears some trace of the 

 grand scarlet crown of the gi'eat ivory-billed 

 king of them all. The (]uestion arises, and 

 I shall not alteinpt to answer it, whether the 



ivory bill is an example of the highest de- 

 velopment, from the downy woodpec-ker, 

 say, or whether all these inferior species and 

 varieties are the resrilt of degeneracy "? 

 Neither Darwin nor Wal'ace has given lis 

 the ke}' that certainly unlocks this very 

 interesting mystery. 



The sap-drinking woj.lpeckers (Sp/iro- 

 pi'ot.-:), of which there are three or four 

 varieties in this country, appear to form 

 the link between the fruit-eating and non- 

 fruit-eatiug species of the red-headed family 

 From sipping the sap of the sugar-maple tp 

 testing the flavor of a cherry, a service-berry 

 or a haw-apjile, is a short and delightfully 

 natural step. How lo>gical, too, for a bird, 

 when it has once acquired the fruit-eating 

 habit, to (piit delving in the hard green 

 wood for a nectar so much inferior to that 

 which may be had ready bottled in the 

 skins of apples, grapes and berries ! In 

 accordance with this rule, M. crythro- 

 eephahis and Centurtm caroUnus, though 

 great tii)plers, are too lazy or too wise to 

 bore the maples, preferring to sil on the 

 edge of a sugar-trough, furtively drinking 

 therefrom leisurely draughts of the sac- 

 chriiie blood of the ready tapped trees. I 

 have seen them with their bills stained pur- 

 ple to the nostrils with the rich juice of the 

 blackberry, and they qiiarrel from morning 

 till night over the ripest June-apples ai.d 

 reddt St cherries, their noise making a ivd- 

 1am of the fairest country orchard. 



The woodpecker family is scattered wide- 

 ly in our county. In the West Canadian 

 woods one meets, besides a number of the 

 commoner species, Lewis's woodpecker, a 

 large, beautiful and rare bird. The Cali- 

 fornia species include the Nuttall, the 

 Harris, the Cape St. Lucas, the white-heade 1 

 and several other varieties, all showing 

 more or less kinship to the ivorj'-bill. 

 Lewis's woodpecker shows almost entirely 

 black, its plumage givsug forth a strong 

 greenish or bluish lustre. The red onitshead 

 is softened down to a fine rose-carmine. It 

 is a wild, wary bird, flying high, combining 

 in its habits the traits of both HylotomvM 

 pileatns and CninpephibiK principalw. 



In concluding this yaper n general de- 



