iS9>.l 



Hasbrouck oh the Irory-hillcd Woodpecker. T75 



The genus Campcphllns is essentially a tropical one, embrac- 

 ing thirteen species, all confined to America, there ben.g noth- 

 i„r. approaching it in the Old World. Of these, two only are 

 closelv related to principalis : the Imperial Woodpecker (C. 

 imperialis). the largest of the genus, found in the Sierra Madre 

 re-ion of Mexico (the extreme western slope of the Sierra Madre 

 Mountains, on the eastern and western borders respectively ot 

 the provinces of Durango and Sonora), and C. principalis 

 bairdii. a subspecies of the Ivory-bill found in northern Cuba. 

 Principalis will, therefore, be readily recognized as the northern 

 representative of the entire genus. There is a chance that iinpc- 

 r>-alis follows the mountain region northward into southern Ari- 

 zona as record* shows that it has been taken in Mexico within 

 sixty miles of the northern border, but as yet no instance is 

 known of its occurrence within the limits of the United States. 



In regard to nesting habits the same may be said as of other 

 species seldom met with,— 'little enough is known about them' ; 

 consequently a few notes derived from other sources may not 

 come auMSS. In an article by Maurice Thompson entitled 'A 

 Red-headed Family,' is the following interesting account of the 

 nest : 



"I looked and saw two large round cavities, not unlike immense 



auger' holes, running darkly into the polished surface of the stump, one 



about six feet below the other, the lower twenty-five feet above the ground. 



I reached the determination that it was my duty to rob that nest in 



the' interest of knowledge I made minute examinations of the 



rifled nest and also tore out the other excavation, so as to compare the two. 

 They were very much alike, especially in the jug shape of their lower 

 ends From a careful study of all the holes (apparently made by Cam- 

 ■pefhilHS) that I have been able to find in either standing or fallen trees, 

 I am led to believe that this jug shape is peculiar to the Ivory-bill s archi- 

 tecture as I have never found it in the excavations of other spec.es, save 

 where ihe form was evidently the result of accident. The depth of the 

 hole varies from three to seven feet, as a rule, but I found one that was 

 nearly nine feet deep, and another that was less than two. Our smaller 

 Woodpeckers, including Hylotomus fileatm. usually make their excava- 

 tions in the shape of a gradually widening pocket, of which the entrance 

 is, the narrowest part." 



In the possession of Maj. B. F. Goss, of Pewaukee, Wiscon- 

 sin, is a set of five eggs taken in Jasper Co., Texas, near the 



« Specimen in Smithsonian Institution, 



