712 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



AN IVORY-BILLED WOODPECKER LEAVES HOME: AND HIS MATE TAKES 

 HER TURN ON THE EGGS 



The birds work in two-hour shifts during the day, but the female leaves her 

 partner on duty all night — so that she always knows where he is, says the 

 author ! The nest hole was 43 feet up in a dead swamp maple and measured 

 4J4 inches in diameter. The great amount of white in the wings distinguishes 

 this bird from the commoner plicated woodpecker. 



pipe. Such resonance is given to the sound 

 by the neck sacs that the birds can be heard 

 for two miles on a quiet morning. 



The strong winds made sound recording 

 very difficult in western Oklahoma, though 

 such clarion calls as those of the western 

 meadowlark and the "whip-whirr" of the 

 burrowing owls at dusk came through very 

 distinctly. We failed to record, however, 

 the white-necked ravens and Mississippi 

 kites which, while rare in iriany parts of 

 their range, are fairly common on the 

 Davison Ranch. 



From Okla- 

 homa our expedi- 

 tion moved north 

 and west through 

 the barren, wind- 

 swept prairies of 

 western Kansas 

 into the ver- 

 dant irrigated 

 stretches of east- 

 ern Colorado, 

 and thence to 

 Colorado Springs 

 and Denver. 



Here we were 

 met and gener- 

 ously assisted by 

 Mr. Robert Nied- 

 rach. Curator of 

 Birds at the Colo- 

 rado Museum of 

 Natural History. 

 Director J. D. 

 Figgins kindly re- 

 lieved him of 

 other duties so he 

 could help us in 

 our efforts to re- 

 cord and film the 

 golden eagles and 

 prairie falcons 

 which are still 

 not uncommon in 

 the vicinity of 

 Denver. 



Never shall I 

 forget the experi- 

 ence of lying 

 prone for four 

 hours on a flat 

 rock at the edge 

 of Box Elder 

 Canyon, a few 

 miles north of 

 Fort Collins, 

 watching and waiting for a golden eagle to 

 return to its eyrie. 



Directly below me the cliff fell away 750 

 feet, while the nesting ledge was only tiO 

 feet down. I was covered with one of our 

 grass blinds so that the eagle would not see 

 me and, unknown to me until T tried to 

 shift my position, the boys had piled so 

 many rocks on the edge of the blind to keep 

 me from falling off the cliff that I could 

 not even roll over. 



At last the majestic bird sailed in with 

 a jack rabbit in his talons and the young 



