THE rVORY-BILLED WOODPECKER 



( Campephilus principalis. ) 



The ornithologist Wilson wrote very 

 enthusiastically regarding the beautifiii 

 Ivory-billed Woodpecker. He said : 

 ''This majestic and formidable species, 

 in strength and magnitude, stands at the 

 head of the w^hole class of woodpeckers 

 hitherto discovered. He may be called 

 the king or chief of his tribe ; and Nature 

 seems to have designed him a distin- 

 guished characteristic in the superb car- 

 mine 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 to his mode 

 of life and method of procuring sub- 

 stance, as to impress on the mind of the 

 examiner the most reverential ideas of 

 the Creator." He is also a more digni- 

 fied appearing bird than are many of the 

 other species of woodpeckers. This bird 

 is also called the White-billed Wood- 

 pecker and the White-billed Logcock. 

 It is the largest of the woodpeckers of 

 the United States. In disposition it is 

 wild and wary and its range is now re- 

 stricted practically to those states which 

 border the Gulf of Mexico and those of 

 the lower Mississippi, and even in this 

 district it is quite local, for it makes its 

 home in heavily wooded lowlands and in 

 cypress swamps. It was formerly found 

 as far north as Southern Indiana and 

 Illinois, and in the South Atlantic States. 

 It is generally believed that the Ivory- 

 billed Woodpeckers have not materially 

 decreased in numbers but that, as they 

 are a wild and suspicious bird, they have 

 retired before the advancing civilization 

 to the naturally quiet and hardly accessi- 

 ble southern swamps where they can 

 hardly be molested. 



Major Bendire quotes the following 

 instructive observations of Mr. E. A. Mc- 

 Ilhenny: "In the cypress swamps ad- 

 jacent to Avery's Island, Louisiana, 

 these noble birds are still quite common, 



and here, in their favorite haunts, I have 

 watched them for years. I believe they 

 remain mated for life, for I have ob- 

 served several pairs of them year in and 

 year out, and can always find them near 

 the spot where they have their nest or 

 winter home, from which place they are 

 hard to drive away, thereby showing a 

 fondness for locality seldom seen in birds 

 of this family." He also says that the 

 nest is generally placed in a cypress or 

 tupelo gum tree, and that the nesting 

 cavity is excavated in the dead portion 

 of the tree. He had never found a nest 

 in wood in which there was sap, or in 

 rotten wood. The female performs all 

 the work of excavation. Mr. Mcllhenny 

 also found that but one brood is reared 

 in a season, and that the young remain 

 with the parents until the mating season 

 of the following year. The young are 

 fed and cared for by both parent birds. 

 The nests are usually situated at least 

 forty or fifty feet above the ground and 

 the excavation may be twenty or more 

 inches in depth and is usually quite a 

 little larger at the bottom than at the 

 top. The entrance hole is oval in shape 

 rather than round, which is the shape of 

 the entrance hole of the nesting cavities 

 of other woodpeckers. As some of the 

 excavations of these birds are three feet 

 in depth, it does not seem strange that 

 the female works from one to three 

 weeks in preparing her home. 

 - These Woodpeckers are very silent 

 at all times so far as their voices are con- 

 cerned. Especially is this true during 

 the breeding season. The very shrill 

 notes which they do utter at times are 

 sounded while on their wing and are the 

 notes of both sexes. They also call each 

 other by rapping on the dry limb of a 

 tree. They rap so loud and fast that the 

 sound produced has been likened to the 

 sound of the roll of a snare drum. 



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