498 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



of the birds of that island, as observed by him, October, 1850, and by Dr. 

 John Gundlach, in his list of the birds that breed in Cuba. It is not men- 

 tioned by Gosse among the birds of Jamaica, nor by the Newtons as found 

 in St. Croix. As it is not a migratory bird, it may be regarded as breeding in 

 all its localities, except where it is obviously an accidental visitant. 



Wilson, who never met with the nest of this Woodpecker, states, on the 

 authority of reliable informants, that it breeds in the large-timbered cypress 

 swamps of the Carolinas. In tlie trunks of these trees at a considerable 

 height from the ground, both parents working alternately, these birds dig out 

 a large and capacious cavity for their eggs and young. Trees thus dug out 

 have frequently been cut down with both the eggs and the young in them. 

 The hole was described to Wilson as generally a little winding, to keep out 

 the rain, and sometimes five feet deep. The eggs were said to be generally 

 four, sometimes five in number, as large as pullets', pure white, and equally 

 thick at both ends. The young make their appearance about the middle or 

 end of June. 



Mr. Audubon, wdiose account of the breeding-habits of the Ivory-bill is 

 given from his own immediate observations, supplies a more minute and de- 

 tailed history of its nesting. He states that it breeds earlier in spring than 

 any other species of its tribe, and that he has observed it boring a hole for 

 that purpose as early as the beginning of March. This hole he believed to 

 be always made in the trunk of a live tree, generally an ash or a hackberry, 

 and at a great height. It pays great regard to the particular situation of the 

 tree and the inclination of the trunk, both with a view to retirement and to 

 secure the aperture against rains. To prevent the latter injury, the hole is 

 generally dug immediately under the protection of a large l)ranch. It is 

 first bored horizontally a few inches, then directly downward, and not in a 

 spiral direction, as Wilson was informed. This cavity is sometimes not 

 more than ten inches in depth, while at other times it reaches nearly three 

 feet downward into the lieart of the tree. The older the bird, the deej^er its 

 hole, in the opinion of Mr. Audubon. The average diameter of the different 

 nests which Mr. Audubon examined was about seven inches in the inner 

 parts, although the entrance is only just large enough to admit the bird. 

 Both birds work most assiduously in making these excavations. Mr. Audu- 

 bon states that in two instances where the Woodpeckers saw him watching 

 them at their labors, while they were digging their nests, they abandoned 

 them. For the first brood, he states, there are generally six eggs. These are 

 deposited on a few chips at the bottom of the hole, and are of a pure white 

 color. The young may be seen creeping out of their holes about a fortnight 

 before they venture to fly to any other tree. The second brood makes its 

 appearance about the 15th of August. In Kentucky and Indiana the Ivory- 

 bill seldom raises more than one brood in a season. Its flight is described 

 by Audubon as graceful in the extreme, though seldom prolonged to more 

 than a few hundred yards at a time, except when it has occasion to cross a 



