272 [VORY-BILLED WOODPECKER. 
IVORY-BILLED WOCDPECKER.—PICUS PRINCIPALIS. — 
Fig. 131. 
Picus principalis, Lynn. Syst.'. p. 173, 2.— Gmel. Syst. i. p. 425. — Picus Kiger 
Carolinensis, Briss. iv. p. 26,9; Id. 8vo. ii. p. 49.— Pic noir a bec blane, Buff. 
vii. p. 46. Pl. enl. 690.—Ki:g of the Woodpeckers, Kulm, ii. p. 85.— White- 
billed Woodpecker, Catesb. Car. i. 6, 16.— Arct. Zool. ii. No. 156. — Lath. Syst. 
ii. p. 553. — Bartram, p. 289. — Peale’s Museum, No. 1884. 
PICUS FRINCIPALIS. — Linn xvs.* 
Picus principalis, Bonap. Synop. p. 44.— Wagl. Syst.. Av. Picus, No. 1.—The 
Ivory-billed Woodpecker, Awd. pl. 66, male and female ; Orn. Biog. i. p. 341. 
Tus majestic and formidable species, in strength and magnitude, | 
stands at the head of the whole class of Woodpeckers hitherto discov- 
ered. He may be called the king or chief of his tribe; and Nature 
* The genus Picus, or Woodpeckers, with the exception of the Parrots, forms 
the most extensive group among the Scansores, and perhaps one of the most natu- 
ral among the numerous divisions now assigned to the feathered race. In a former 
note, we mentioned the difference of form, and corresponding modification of habit, 
that nevertheless existed among them. Most ornithologists have divided them into 
three groups only, taking the common form of Woodpeckers for the type, making 
another of the Golden-winged, and including in a third the very minute species 
which form Temminck’s genus Picumnus, but which, I believe, will be found to 
rank in a family somewhat different. Mr. Swainson, again, in following out the 
views which he holds regarding the affinities of living beings, has formed five 
aoe ee our present form as typical, under the title Picus ; that of the 
rreen Woodpecker, under Chrysoptilus ; that of the Red-headed Woodpecker, as 
Melanerpess the Golden-Wings, as Colaptes; and Malacolophus, as the Soft- 
crested Brazilian and Indian species. Of these forms, the northern parts of Amer- 
ica will contain only three: two we have had occasion already to ‘remark upon 3 
and the third forms the subject of our author’s present description — the most power- 
ful of the whole tribe, and showing all the forms and peculiarities of the trae Wood- 
pecker developed to the utmost. : i 
The Pici are very numerous, and are distributed over the whole -world, New 
Holland excepted ; America, however, including both continents, may be termed 
the land of Woodpeckers. Her vast and solitary forests afford abundance to sat- 
isfy their various wants, and furnish a secluded retirement from the inroads of culti= 
vation. Next in number, I believe, India and her islands are best stored; then, 
Africa; and lastly, Europe. ‘The numbers, however, are always grealest between 
the tropics, and generally diminish as we recede from and approach temperate or 
cold regions. ‘They are mostly insectivorous ; a few species only feed occasionally - 
on different fruits and berries. The various Coleoptera, that form their abodes in 
dead and decaying timber, and beneath their bark and moss, with their eggs and 
large larvee, form an essential part of their subsistence. For securing this, prey, 
digging it out from their burrows in the wood, and the peculiar mode of life incident 
to such pursuits, they are most admirably adapted. The bill is strong and wedge- 
shaped ; the neck possesses great muscularity. The tongue, —fitted by the curi- 
ous construction of its muscles and the os hyoides, and jubricated with a viscous 
saliva, either gently to secure and draw in the weaker prey, or with great force 
and rapidity to dart out, and, it is said, to transfix the Jarger and more nimble in- 
sects, —joined to the short legs and hooked, scansorial claws, with the stiff, bent 
tail, are all provisions beautifully arranged for their wants. 
All the species are solitary ; live in pairs only during the season of incubation; or 
are met with in small flocks, the amount of the year’s brood, in the end of autumn, 
before they have separated. This solitary habit, and their haunts being generally 
