ORDER PICI. 



WOODPECKERS, WRYNECKS, ETC. 



Family PICID^. Woodpeckers. 



Of the three hundred and fifty or more known species of wood- 

 peckers, some 35 (including subspecies) occur in North America. 

 They are wood birds and may often be seen climbing about the trunks 

 of trees in search of their food, and their stiff tail feathers pressed 

 against the bark greatly assists in supporting them. Woodpeckers 

 are of decided benefit to the agriculturist, for while they occasionally 

 destroy a little fruit, they eat great quantities of injurious insects 

 and larvae. The tongue is eminently adapted for extracting larvae 

 from the crevices in the bark, being very long and slender and tipped 

 with a sharp, hard point edged with minute bristle-like hooks. 

 Their presence in the woods is often indicated by their loud rapid 

 tapping on trees. Their eggs are laid in holes in trees. 



Subfamily PICIN^E. 



Genus CAMPEPHILUS Gray. 

 188. Campephilus principalis (LiNN.). 

 IVORY-BILLED WOODPECKER. 



Distr.: Formerly south Atlantic and Gulf states, from Texas to 

 the Carolinas and north to southern Illinois and Indiana; now occurs 

 only in isolated localities in some of the Gulf states and Florida. 



Adult male: Greater portion of plumage, black; a brilliant scarlet 

 crest covered on top by the elongated black feathers of the crown, a 

 white stripe extending down each side of the neck to the middle off 

 the back; terminal half, or more, of secondaries and tips of inner 

 primaries, white; under wing coverts, white; entire under parts, 

 black; nostril bristles, white; bill, dull white. 



Adult female : Similar, but without the scarlet crest. 



Length, about 19.50; wing, 10; bill, 2.50; tail, 7. 



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