I 84 Hasbrouck on the Ivory-billed Woodpecker. [April 



from Fulton County, Kentucky, just north of and adjoining this 

 State, and also those directly south in Louisiana, and west in 

 Arkansas. 



It will 1)e seen from the foregoing, that in many instances the 

 accounts are modified with the statement that the species is ex- 

 tremely rare as compared with past years, or else has disap- 

 peared from the localities entirely. Probably this is not altogether 

 owing to the actual decrease in the numbers of the birds, but to 

 its extreme wildness and desire for seclusion; — ''Savage liberty 

 is a pre-requsite of its existence, and its home is the depth of the 

 woods remotest from the activities of civilized man." As a re- 

 sult many of those regions which were formerly its haunts have 

 been abandoned for the wilder and more inaccessible parts of the 

 forest. Audubon relates the finding of a nearly completed nest, 

 and, on hi^, being discovered in the vicinity by the owners, of its 

 immediate abandonment. Surely a bird as wild, as wary, as this 

 would, not remain in the vicinity where man was constantly to be 

 met ! There are thousands of square miles of swamp throughout 

 the Mississippi Valley and Gulf States that never will or can be 

 reclaimed or settled, country that is admirably suited to this 

 bird, and in which, as I have shown, it is much more common 

 today than elsewhere ; and here, it is safe to say, it will be found 

 indefinitely; for, into those swampy fastnesses in which it most 

 delights, few care to penetrate, at certain seasons none dare ; and 

 as but few are killed, and each pair in existence today will pre- 

 sumably raise its brood the coming spring Nand together with them 

 repeat the multiplication each successive year, — it is reasonable to 

 assume that the species will be found there many years hence. 



To conclude, it would appear that prior to 1S60 the Ivory- 

 billed Woodpecker was distributed from Fort Macon, N. C, 

 along the coast as far west as the Brazos River in Texas, and ex- 

 tending towards the interior for an average distance of seventy- 

 five miles; in the Mississippi Valley as far inland as central and 

 western Missouri, southern Illinois, Indiana, and western Ken- 

 tucky, together with a portion of Indian Territory. From i860 

 to 1880, it had retired before the march of civilization from many 

 of its former haunts, forsaking entirely Indiana, Illinois, North 

 Carolina and all but the extreme eastern portion of Texas ; while 

 from 1S80 to 1S90 (although a characteristic bird of the Avistrori- 

 parian region) it has practically confined its abode to the denser 

 swamps bordering the South Atlantic and Gulf States, 



