BIHD3. 177 



walks into the forests of those countries, among the first strange 

 objects that excite curiosity, is struck with the multitude of 

 birds' nests hanging at the extremity of almost every branch. 

 Many other kinds of birds build in this manner, but the chief of 



inent between the bark and tender wood, to drink up the very vital part of 

 the tree. It is the ravages of these vermin wliich the intellig-ent proprietor 

 of the forest deplores, as the sole perpetrators of the destruction of his tim- 

 ber. Would it be believed that the larvae of an insect, or fly, no larger than 

 a grain of rice, should silently, and in one seasim, destroy some thousand 

 acres of pine trees, many of them from two to three feet in diameter, and a 

 hundred and fifty feet high ! Yet whoever passes along the high road from 

 Georgetown to Charleston, in South Carolina, about twenty miles from the 

 former place, can have striking and melancholy proofs of 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 tumbUng in ruins before every blast, presenting a frightful picture 

 of desolation. And yet ignorance and prej udice stubbornly persist in direct, 

 ing their indignation against the bird now before us, the constant and mor- 

 tal enemy of these very vermin, as if the hand tliat probed the wound to ex. 

 tract its caiise, should be equally detested with that which Inflicted it ; or as 

 i< the thief-catcher should be confounded with tlie 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 pro- 

 tecting, and receiving with proper feelings of gratitude, the services of this 

 and the wliole tribe of woodpeckers, letting the odium of guilt fall to its 

 proper owners. 



" In looking over the accounts given of the ivory-billed woodpecker by 

 the naturalists of Europe, I find it asserted, that it inhabits from New Jersey 

 to Mexico. I believe, however, that few of thera are ever seen to the north 

 of Virginia, and very few of them even in that state. The first place I ob- 

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

 north of Wilmington in North Carolina. Having wounded it slightly in the 

 wing, on being caught, it uttered a loudly reiterated and most piteous note, 

 exactly resembling the violent crying of a young child ; which terrified my 

 horse so, as nearly to have cost me ray life. It was distressing to hear it I 

 ciirried it with me in the chair, under cover, to Wilmington. In passing 

 through the streets, its affecting 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 

 liotel, where I intended to put up, the landlord came forward, and a number 

 of other persons who happened to be there, all equally alarmed at what they 

 heard ; this was greatly increased by my a^^king, whether he could furnish 

 me with accommodations for myself and my baby. The man looked blank 

 and foolish, while the others stared with still greater astonishment. Aftei 

 diverting myself for a minute or two at their expense, I drew my wood- 

 pecker from under the cover, and a general laugh took place. I took 

 him up stairs and locked him up in my room, while I went to see my 

 horse taken care of In less than an hour I returned, and, on opening 

 the door, he set uo the same distressing shout, which now appeared to 



