lyb Hasbrouck o?i the Ivory-bilhd Woodpecker. [April 



Neches River on May 3, 1885, which are said to be the only 

 ones known in collections. Mr. Goss informs me that the nest 

 w^as "situated forty feet from the ground, with the excavation 

 nearly two feet deep and large enough to insert the arm ; the 

 eggs lav on the bare w^ood, are quite pyriform in sliape, glossy 

 white, and measure 1.44 X 1.06, 1.45 X 1.06, 1.44 x 1.07 

 inches." 



Audubon gives the number laid by this species as eight ; others, 

 from five to eight ; while according to Coues six may be con- 

 sidered as an average ; and in the nest found by Mr. Thomp- 

 son, already mentioned, five were found to be the complement. 

 The only account concerning the young that has been found is 

 that by Mr. W. E. D. Scott, in 'The Auk' (Vol. V, 18SS, p. 1S6) 

 under date of March 17, 1S87, at Tarpon Springs, Florida, 

 which is quoted substantially as follows : 



"Found nest of Ivory-hilled Woodpecker, and obtained both parent 



birds and the single young bird which was the occupant of the nest 



The opening was oval in shape, being three and one half inches wide and 

 four and a half inches high. The cavity .... was cylindrical in shape 

 and a little more than fourteen inches deep. Tiie young bird in the nest 

 was a female, and though over one third grown, had not yet opetied its 

 eyes. The feathers of the first plumage were apparent, beginning to 

 cover the down, and were the same in coloration as those of the adult 

 female bird." 



The first definite records of its distribution and habits are those 

 of Audubon and Wilson, both of whom give pleasing accounts of 

 this species, though they appear to have approached its region of 

 habitation from different directions. The former, in his 'Orni- 

 thological Biography,' published in 1832, says: "VVe first met 

 with this magnificent Woodpecker near the junction of the Ohio 

 with the Mississippi River, where it is frequently observed south 

 from this locality, and northward towards the Missouri River." 

 Wilson* informs us that he "first observed it twelve miles north 

 of Wilmington, North Carolina," and here it may be well to call 

 attention to the fact that this is the most northern actual record 

 for the Atlantic coast. In a paper by Coues and Yarrow, f 

 however, on the natural history of Fort Macon, North Carolina, 

 published in 1878, is the following statement : "Information was 



* Birds of America, 

 t Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila , 1878, 21-28. 



