IVORY-BILLED WOODPECKER. u 



this fact. In some places the whole woods, as far as you can 

 see around you, are dead, stripped of the bark, their wintry- 

 looking arms and bare trunks bleaching in the sun, and tumbling 

 in ruins before every blast, presenting a frightful picture of de- 

 solation. And yet ignorance and prejudice stubbornly persist 

 in directing their indignation against the bird now before us, 

 the constant and mortal enemy of these very vermin, as if the 

 hand that probed the wound, to extract its cause, should be 

 equally detested with that which inflicted it; or as if the thief- 

 catcher should be confounded with the thief. Until some effec- 

 tual preventive, or more complete mode of destruction, can be 

 devised against these insects, and their larvae, I would humbly 

 suggest the propriety of protecting, and receiving with proper 

 feelings of gratitude, the services of this and the whole tribe of 

 Woodpeckers, letting the odium of guilt fall to its proper owners. 

 In looking over the accounts given of the Ivory-billed Wood- 

 pecker by the naturalists of Europe, I find it asserted, that it 

 inhabits from New Jersey to Mexico. I believe, however, that 

 few of them are ever seen to the north of Virginia, and very 

 few of them even in that state. The first place I observed this 

 bird at, when on my way to the south, was about twelve miles 

 north of Wilmington, in North Carolina. There I found the 

 bird from which the drawing of the figure in the plate was taken. 

 This bird was only wounded slightly in the wing, and on being 

 caught, uttered a loudly-reiterated, and most piteous note, ex- 

 actly resembling the violent crying of a young child ; which 

 terrified my horse so, as nearly to have cost me my life. It was 

 distressing to hear it. I carried it with me in the chair, under 

 cover, to Wilmington. In passing through the streets, its affect- 

 ing cries surprised every one within hearing, particularly the 

 females, who hurried to the doors and windows, with looks of 

 alarm and anxiety. I drove on, and on arriving at the piazza of 

 the hotel, where I intended to put up, the landlord came for- 

 ward, and a number of other persons who happened to be there, 

 all equally alarmed at what they heard; this was greatly increased 

 by my asking whether he could furnish me with accommoda- 



