THE IVORY-BILLED WOODPECKER. 219 



Male, 21, 30. Female, 19£, wing 10. 



Common in Texas, Louisiana, and along the Mississippi, to the Ohio. 

 Rare on the latter, to Henderson. From Florida to North Carolina. 

 Resident. 



Adult Male. 



Bill long, straight, strong, polyhedral, tapering, compressed and truncated 

 at the tip; mandibles nearly equal, both nearly straight in their dorsal out- 

 line. Nostrils basal, oval, partly covered by recumbent bristly feathers. 

 Head large. Neck long and slender. Body robust. Feet rather short, 

 robust; tarsus strong, scutellate before, scaly on the sides; two toes before 

 and two behind, the inner hind toe shortest; claws strong, arched, very acute. 



Plumage compact, glossy. Feathers of the head elongated and erectile. 

 Wings large, the third and fourth quills longest. Tail long, graduated, of 

 twelve tapering stiff feathers worn to a point by being rubbed against the 

 bark of trees. 



Bill of an ivory-white, whence the common name of the bird. Iris bright 

 yellow. Feet greyish-blue. The general colour of the plumage is black, 

 with violet reflections, more glossy above. The feathers of the middle and 

 hind part of the head are of a vivid deep carmine. A broad band of white 

 runs down the neck and back, on either side, commencing narrow under the 

 ear, and terminating with the scapulars. The five outer primaries black, the 

 rest white towards the end, the secondaries wholly white, so that when the 

 wings are closed, the posterior part of the back seems white, although it is 

 in reality black. Lateral tail-feathers with a spot of white near the tip of 

 each web. 



Length 21 inches, extent of wings 30; bill along the back 2\, along the 

 gap 3; tarsus 2. 



Adult Female. 



The female resembles the male in colouring, but wants the vivid patch on 

 the crest, which is wholly black. 



Two of these Woodpeckers, preserved in spirits, have afforded an oppor- 

 tunity of making the following observations. 



The length to end of tail is 19^ inches, to end of wings 16 J, to end of 

 claws 15; wing from flexure 10; tail 9f> 



The width of the mouth is 1 inch. The bill, fig. I, a b, p. 52S, is much 

 longer than the head, straight, robust, its horny covering of extreme thick- 

 ness and solidity. It is broader than high at the base, in the proportion of 

 1 inch to 8 twelfths. The upper mandible, a, has its dorsal outline very 

 slightly arched and deflected, the ridge narrow, the lateral ridge at the base 

 equidistant from the median ridge and the margin, running parallel with the 

 former, and passing out at the margin at the distance of 10 twelfths from the 



