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ey | BEYER, The lvory-billed Woodpecker in Louisiana. 99 
Of the breeding habits I could not learn anything at the time, 
except that I believe only one brood is raised, and that the old 
birds continue to feed and care for their young long after they are 
able to take care of themselves. It was then near the middle 
of July, and old and young birds were still together, and the 
attention of the old ones was too entirely taken up by the young 
to have a chance of preparing for a,second generation. 
The Ivory-billed Woodpecker, in Audubon’s time fairly com- 
mon, is now fast disappearing, and I doubt the existence in our 
State of another locality where it could be found at the present 
day, and even in that swamp where I hunted them, they are not 
uniformly distributed but are confined to two or three localities 
in the vicinity of Big and Hog Lakes. 
Our hunt was quite successful, as I obtained seven specimens 
in fairly good plumage. ‘The old pair which I found with one of 
their young in the nest, I mounted with all their belongings. As 
stated before, this nest was located about forty feet from the 
ground, and the entrance was nearly hidden by the leaves of the 
poison ivy (us radicans) which had totally covered the lower 
portions of the old stump. The entrance measures exactly 44 
inches in height and 3§ inches in width. The cavity itself is only 
nine inches deep and seven and a half inches in height. 
The bottom of the nest was covered to the depth of about an 
inch with fine wood chips and rotten wood dust. The interior 
was very clean, and every sign of excreta and other household 
débris had been carefully removed. There was but one young 
one about, and it remained in close vicinity of the entrance, not- 
withstanding that it was almost fully feathered and able to fly. 
Both parents were still feeding it. 
