THE IVORY-BILLED WOODPECKER. 



'N size, though hardly in beauty, 

 this is indeed the prince of 

 Woodpeckers, the largest of 

 our North American species. 

 Its length ranges from nineteen 

 to twenty-one inches. There is one 

 other Woodpecker, called the Imperial, 

 which is larger, measuring twenty- 

 three or twenty-four inches in length. 

 This bird is found in Western Mexico, 

 north along the Sierra Madre, and 

 probably, according to Davie, has not 

 yet been observed within the limits of 

 the United States. 



The Ivory-billed is now rare, and is 

 apparently restricted to the extreme 

 southern states, especially those bor- 

 dering the Gulf of Mexico. It is of 

 a wild and wary disposition, making 

 its home in the dark, swampy wood- 

 lands. The dense cypress swamps 

 of Florida are one of its favorite 

 haunts. 



The nest of the Ivory-bill is 

 excavated in a tree, about forty feet 

 from the ground, the cavity often 

 being nearly two feet in depth. Three 

 or more eggs are laid. 



This bird does not remain long in 

 one place, and during the day ranges 

 over an extended territory. Its call is 

 a high, rather nasal, yap-yap-yap ^ 

 sounding in the distance like the note 

 of a penny trumpet. 



To use the language of Chapman, 

 whose " Handbook " is a mine of 

 ornithological knowledge. Wood- 

 peckers are rather solitary birds, but 

 are sometimes found associated in 

 scattered companies during their 

 migrations. Above all other birds, 

 they are especially adapted to creep or 

 climb. The peculiar structure of the 

 foot, with its two toes directed forward 

 and two backward, except in one 

 genus, the Three-toed (which will 

 appear in the April number of Birds), 

 assists them in clinging to an upright 



surface, while the pointed, stiffened 

 tail feathers serve as a prop when the 

 bird is resting. The stout, chisel-like 

 bill is used to cut away wood and 

 expose the hiding places of grubs, etc., 

 when the long, distensible tongue, 

 with its horny, spear-like tip is thrust 

 in, the food impaled and drawn out. 



All Woodpeckers are of value to the 

 farmer. It has been shown that two- 

 thirds to three-fourths of their food 

 consists of insects, chiefly noxious. 

 Wood-boring beetles, both adults and 

 larvse, are conspicuous, and with them 

 are associated manycaterpillers, mostly 

 species that burrow into trees. Next 

 in importance are the ants that live in 

 decaying wood, all of which are sought 

 by Woodpeckers and eaten in great 

 quantities. Many ants are particu- 

 larly harmful to timber, for if they 

 find a small spot of decay in the vacant 

 burrow of some wood-borers, they 

 enlarge the hole, and as their colony is 

 always on the increase, continue to eat 

 away the wood until the whole trunk 

 is honeycombed. Moreover, these 

 insects are not accessible to other 

 birds, and could pursue their career of 

 destruction unmolested were it not 

 that the Woodpeckers, with beaks and 

 tongues especially fitted for such work, 

 dig out and devour them. It is thus 

 evident that the Woodpeckers are 

 great conservators of forests. To 

 them, more than to any other agency, 

 we owe the preservation of timber 

 from hordes of destructive insects. 



The Ivory-billed Woodpecker, living 

 his almost solitary life in the vast and 

 nearly impenetrable cypress swamps, 

 at a height of forty and fifty feet from 

 the ground, is rarely seen by man. 

 The specimens we present in Birds 

 are so nearly life-like that our readers 

 need only imagine themselves in the 

 dense forest of cypress to realize a very 

 natural scene. 



