l8o Hasbrouck on the Ivoiy-billrd Woodpecker. [April 



Cory, claimed to have been shot near Fort Myers, on the Caloo- 

 sahatchie River. Mr. Frederick Ober, in his report of the trip 

 throngh the Okeechobee region,* chiims to have seen what he took 

 to be Campephilns, but failed to secnre a specimen. It is prolxibl^ 

 that it occurs there, but as expeditions into this region are few, it 

 is not surprising that there are no records. In the collection of 

 Mr. Brewster j is a series of fourteen specimens taken from 1S76 

 to 1S89 inclusive, all of which, with the exception of two taken in 

 1S76, w^cre collected within the past ten years; these, together 

 with the foregoing records, prove be^•ond doubt that the State of 

 Florida is tlie centre of abundance of the Ivory-bill. 



My own experience with the species, although limited, is as 

 follows: — I had been spending the winter of 18S5- 1886 in Flor- 

 ida, and during the month of March had made my headquarters 

 at the home of my friend, Mr. E. G. Smith, on Big Lake George. 

 One of mv favorite trips was up Juniper Creek, a small stream 

 emptying into the head of the lake one mile west of the famous 

 Volusia bar ; the country through which it passes is one of 

 those wild, semi-tropical swamps, so common throughout the 

 Gulf States. Anhingas {Anhinga aiihinga)^ Little Blue Her- 

 ons (Ardea cceritlea), Egrets (A. egretta) antl Limpkins 

 {^Arainns giganteus) were by no means uncommon, and it was 

 in search of these that Mr. Smith and I took a boat on March 

 26 and started for this locality. VVe took with us as oarsman 

 'Jim' (one of the help on the pUice), who had done consider- 

 able collecting for me, and in whose accuracy as a marksman I 

 had some confidence. We had gone perhaps a mile up the stream 

 when a new and peculiar note sounded from the forest, which I 

 can only liken as do other writers to the false high note of a clari- 

 onet ; hastily landing I immediately went in search of its author 

 (as I had not the faintest idea from what source it proceeded), but 

 owing to the thickness of the underbrush it was next to impossible 

 to penetrate farther than a few yards and, the noise ceasing en- 

 tirely, I returned and we continued up the stream. Noon found 

 us eating our lunch on a small knoll some four miles from the lake 

 in the very thickest of the swamp. Around us stood gigantic 

 cvpi'ess trees whose trunks and branches were adorned with thou- 

 sands of air plants, and from which the myriads of vines which 

 twined and twisted, and the gray Spanish moss hanging in long 



*Forest and Stream, April 23, 1874. 

 fSee tabulation of records. 



