THE BIRD SUPPLY 



beyond their usual breeding range. Here, as Forbush 

 suggests, the summer probably was not sufficiently 

 long to enable them to rear their young successfully. 

 The Ivory-billed Woodpecker, the largest member 

 of the Woodpecker family found in the United States, 

 is now nearly extinct. There are some in the wilder 

 regions of Florida, and a few in the swamps of upper 

 Louisiana, but nowhere does the bird exist in num- 

 bers. It has been thought by some naturalists that 

 the reduction of the forest areas was responsible 

 for this bird's disappearance, but it is hard to believe 

 that this fact alone was sufficient to affect them so 

 seriously, for the birds live mainly in swamps, and 

 in our Southern States there are extensive lowland 

 regions that remain practically untouched by the 

 axeman. For some reason, however, the birds have 

 been unable to withstand the advance of civilization, 

 and like the Paroquet, the disappearance of which is 

 almost equally difficult to explain, it will soon be 

 numbered with the lengthening list of species that 

 have passed away. 



[ 129] 



