Wee UA UK : 
AOU AR ME ROE OU RN A L.OF 
ORNITHOLOGY. 
VO. XvIil. APRIL, 1900. Now2: 
THE IVORY-BILLED WOODPECKER IN LOUISIANA. 
BY GEO. G. BEYER. 
Apout three years ago I was engaged in Franklin Parish, 
Louisiana, on certain archeological investigations, but having 
considerable time to spare, I also took some notice of the bird- 
fauna of that section of the State, without establishing, however, 
any special records worthy of notice, with the exception of certain 
reports of the occurrence of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker (Cam- 
pephilus principalis) in an almost inaccessible swamp, which 
extends from the most northern portion of Franklin Parish, 
between the Tensas River and Bayou Macon, to Black River. 
All efforts to obtain verification of these reports were unsuc- 
cessful at the time, but upon my return to North Louisiana last 
July, a gentleman handed me the dried head of a female Ivory- 
bill, informing me at the same time that, owing to the long-con- 
tinued drouth, he could guide me to the spot where he had shot it 
and had seen several others. 
As the locality was far removed from any human habitation, it 
became necessary to fit out a regular camping party, and a few 
days after I started for Big Lake, a large body of water in the 
midst of a heavy cypress swamp. The borders of the lake as 
well as the banks of some of the larger cross-bayous are heavily 
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