JUL 15 1898 



THE AUK: 



A Q^UARTERLV JOURNAL OF 



ORNITHOLOGY. 



VOL. XV. July, 1898. no. 3. 



THE IMPERIAL IVORY-BILLED WOODPECKER, 

 CAMPEPHILUS IMPERIALIS (GOULD). 



BY E. W. NELSON. 



Plate III. 



At a meeting of the Zoological Society of London, held on 

 August 14, 1832, specimens were exhibited of a previously 

 undescribed Woodpecker, remarkable for its extraordinary size. 

 These specimens, the male of which measured two feet in length, 

 were said to have been obtained by Mr. Gould from " that little 

 explored district of California which borders the territory of 

 Mexico" — a statement which serves as a good illustration of 

 the vague ideas of American geography that prevailed among 

 naturalists in those days. Mr. Gould made a felicitous choice of 

 name when he called this bird Picus imperialis for it is by far the 

 largest and most striking member of the Woodpecker family in 

 the world. The authors of the 'Biologia Centrali- Americana ' 

 say that Gould's original skins are made up like those of Floresi, 

 a mining engineer, who collected birds in the Sierra Madre 

 Mountains near Bolailos, Jalisco, early in the century. My own 

 observations prove that the Imperial Ivory-bill is found near that 

 place, and there is little doubt that it is the type locality. The 

 home of this Woodpecker is in such a remote and rarely visited 

 region that despite the large size and conspicuous plumage of the 

 bird, many years passed after its discovery before any additions 



