166 IVORY-BILLED WOODPECKER. 



timbered cypress swamps for breeding in. In the trunk of one of these 

 trees, at a considerable height, the male and female alternately, and in 

 conjunction, dig out a large and capacious cavity for their eggs and 

 young. Trees thus dug out have frequently been cut down, with some- 

 times the eggs and young in them. This hole according to information, 

 for I have never seen one myself, is generally a little winding, the better 

 to keep out the weather, and from two to five feet deep. The eggs are 

 said to be generally four, sometimes five, as large as a pullet's, pure 

 white, and equally thick at both ends ; a description that, except in size, 

 very nearly agrees with all the rest of our Woodpeckers. The young 

 begin to be seen abroad about the middle of June. Whether they breed 

 more than once in the same season is uncertain. 



So little attention do the people of the countries where these birds 

 inhabit, pay to the minutipe of natural history, that, generally speaking, 

 they make no distinction between the Ivory-billed and Pileated Wood- 

 pecker, represented in the same plate; and it was not till I showed 

 them the two birds together, that they knew of any difference. The 

 more intelligent and observing part of the natives, however, distinguish 

 them by the name of the large and lesser Logcocks. They seldom ex- 

 amine them but at a distance, gunpowder being considered too precious 

 to be thrown away on Woodpeckers ; nothing less than a Turkey being 

 thought worth the value of a load. 



The food of this bird consists, I believe, entirely of insects and their 

 larvae. The Pileated Woodpecker is suspected of sometimes tasting the 

 Indian corn ; the Ivory-billed never. His common note, repeated every 

 three or four seconds, very much resembles the tone of a trumpet, or the 

 high note of a clarionet, and can plainly be distinguishejl at the distance 

 of more than half a mile ; seeming to be immediately at hand, though 

 perhaps more than one hundred yards off. This it utters while mount- 

 ing along the trunk, or digging into it. At these times it has a stately 

 and novel appearance ; and the note instantly attracts the notice of a 

 stranger. Along the borders of the Savannah river, between Savannah 

 and Augusta, I found them very frequently ; but my horse no sooner 

 heard their trumj^et-like note, than remembering his former alarm, he 

 became almost ungovernable. 



The Ivory-billed Woodpecker is twenty inches long, and thirty inches 

 in extent ; the general color is black, with a considerable gloss of green 

 when exposed to a good light ; iris of the eye vivid yellow ; nostrils 

 covered with recumbent white hairs ; fore part of the head black, rest 

 of the crest of a most splendid red, spotted at the bottom with white, 

 which is only seen when the crest is erected, as represented in the plate ; 

 this long red plumage being ash-colored at its base, above that white, 

 and ending in brilliant red ; a stripe of white proceeds from a point, 

 about half an inch below each eye, passes down each side of the neck, 



