AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 



GENUS XXII. PICUS. WOODPECKER. 



SPECIES 1. PICUS PRINCIPALS. 



IVORY-BILLED WOODPECKER. 



[Plate XXIX. Fig. 1.] 



Picus principalis, LINN. Syst. i, p. ITS, 2. GMEL. Syst.i, p. 425. 

 Picus niger Carolinensis cristatus, BRISS. iv, p. 26, 9. Pic 

 noir a bee blanc, BUFF, vn, p. 46. PL Enl. 690. King of the 

 Woodpeckers, KALM, vol. n, p. 85. White-billed Woodpecker, 

 CATESB. Car.'i, l.Jlrct. Zool. n, JVo. 156. LATH. Syn. n, p. 

 553. BARTRAM,^. 289. PEALK'S Museum, JVo. 1884. 



THIS majestic and formidable species, in strength and mag- 

 nitude, stands at the head of the whole class of Woodpeckers 

 hitherto discovered. He may be called the king or chief of his 

 tribe; and Nature seems to have designed him a distinguished 

 characteristic, in the superb carmine crest, and bill of polished 

 ivory, with which she has ornamented him. His eye is brilliant 

 and daring; and his whole frame so admirably adapted for his 

 mode of life, and method of procuring subsistence, as to impress 

 on the mind of the examiner the most reverential ideas of the 

 Creator. His manners have also a dignity in them superior to 

 the common herd of Woodpeckers. Trees, shrubbery, orchards, 

 rails, fence-posts, and old prostrate logs, are alike interesting to 

 those, in their humble and indefatigable search for prey; but 

 the royal hunter now before us, scorns the humility of such 

 situations, and seeks the most towering trees of the forest; 

 seeming particularly attached to those prodigious cypress 



VOL. II. B 



