IVORY-BILLED WOODPECKER. 1$ 



pecker are well known to the savages, no wonder they should 

 attach great value to it, having both beauty, and, in their esti- 

 mation, distinguished merit to recommend it. 



This bird is not migratory, but resident in the countries where 

 it inhabits. In the low counties of the Carolinas, it usually 

 prefers the large-timbered cypress swamps for breeding in. In 

 the trunk of one of these trees, at a considerable height, the 

 male and female alternately, and in conjunction, dig out a large 

 and capacious cavity for their eggs and young. Trees thus dug 

 out have frequently been cut down, with sometimes the eggs 

 and young in them. This hole according to information, for I 

 have never seen one myself, is generally a little winding, the 

 better to keep out the weather, and from two to five feet deep. 

 The eggs are said to be generally four, sometimes five, as large 

 as a pullet's, pure white, and equally thick at both ends; a de- 

 scription that, except in size, very nearly agrees with all the 

 rest of our Woodpeckers. The young begin to be seen abroad 

 about the middle of June. Whether they breed more than once 

 in the same season is uncertain. 



So little attention do the people of the countries where these 

 birds inhabit, pay to the minutiae of natural history, that, gene- 

 rally speaking, they make no distinction between the Ivory- 

 billed and Pileated Woodpecker, represented in the same plate; 

 and it was not till I showed them the two birds together, that 

 they knew of any difference. The more intelligent and observ- 

 ing part of the natives, however, distinguish them by the name 

 of the large and lesser Log-cocks. They seldom examine them 

 but at a distance, gunpowder being considered too precious to 

 be thrown away on Woodpeckers; nothing less than a Turkey 

 being thought worth the value of a load. 



The food of this bird consists, I believe, entirely of insects 

 and their larvse. The Pileated Woodpecker is suspected of 

 sometimes tasting the Indian corn; the Ivory-billed never. His 

 common note, repeated every three or four seconds, very much 

 resembles the tone of a trumpet, or the high note of a clarinet, 

 and can plainly be distinguished at the distance of more than 



