A RED-HEADED FAMILY. 33 
jug-shape of their lower ends. From a care- 
ful study of all the holes (apparently made by 
Campephilus) that I have been able to find 
and reach in either standing or fallen trees, I 
am led to believe that this jug-shape is pecul- 
iar to the ivory-bill’s architecture, as I have 
never found it in the excavations of other 
species, save where the form was evidently the 
result of accident. The depth of the hole 
varies from three to seven feet, as arule, but I 
found one that was nearly nine feet deep and 
another that was less thantwo. Our smaller 
woodpeckers, including Mylotomus pileatus, 
usually make their excavations in the shape of 
a gradually widening pocket, of which the en- 
trance is the narrowest part. 
It is curious to note that—beginning with the 
ivory-bill and coming down the line of species 
in the scale of size—we find the red mark on 
the head rapidly falling away from a grand 
scarlet crest some inches in height to a mere 
touch of carmine, or dragon’s blood, on crown, 
nape, cheek, or chin. The lofty and brilliant 
head-plume of the ivory-bill, his powerful beak. 
his semi-circular claws and his perfectly spiked 
tail, as well as his superiority of size and 
strength, indicate that he is what he is, the 
original type of the woodpecker, and the one 
pure species left to us in America. He is the 
only woodpecker which eats insects and larvee 
(dug out of rotten wood) exclusively. Neither 
the sweetest fruits nor the oiliest grains can 
tempt him to depart one line from his heredit- 
ary habit. He accepts no gifts from man, and 
asks no favors. But the pileated woodpecker, 
just one remove lower in the scale of size, 
strength, and beauty, shows a little tendency 
2s 
