1 6 IVORY-BILLED WOODPECKER. 



So little attention do the people of the countries where these 

 birds inhabit pay to the roinutife of natural history, that, 

 generally speaking, they make no distinction between the 



peckers saw me thus at the foot of the tree in which they were digging 

 their nest, they abandoned it for ever. For the first brood there are 

 generally six eggs. They are deposited on a few chips at the bottom of 

 the hole, and are of a pure white colour. The young are seen creeping 

 out of the hole about a fortnight before they venture to fly to any other 

 tree. The second brood makes its appearance about the 15th of 

 August. 



" In Kentucky and Indiana, the ivory-bills seldom raise more than 

 one brood in the season. The young are at first of the colour of the 

 female, only that they want the crest, which, however, grows rapidly, 

 and towards autumn — particularly in birds of the first breed — is nearly 

 equal to that of the mother. The males have then a slight line of red 

 on the head, and do not attain their richness of plumage until spring, or 

 their full size until the second year. Indeed, even then, a difference is 

 easily observed between them and individuals which are much older. 



" The food of this species consists principally of beetles, larvae, and 

 large grubs. No sooner, however, are the grapes of our forests ripe than 

 they are eaten by the ivory-billed woodpecker with great avidity. I 

 have seen this bird hang by its claws to the vines, in the position so 

 often assumed by a titmouse, and reaching downwards, help itself to a 

 bunch of grapes with much apparent pleasure. Persimmons are also 

 sought for by them, as soon as the fruit becomes quite mellow, as are 

 hagberries. 



" The ivory-bill is never seen attacking the corn, or the fruit of the 

 orchards, although it is sometimes observed working upon and chipping 

 off the bark from the belted tre«s of the newly cleared plantations. It 

 seldom comes near the ground, but prefers at all times the tops of the 

 tallest trees. Should it, however, discover the half-standing broken 

 shaft of a large dead and rotten tree, it attacks it in such a manner as 

 nearly to demolish it in the course of a few days. I have seen the re- 

 mains of some of these ancient monarchs of our forests so excavated, and 

 that so singularly, that the tottering fragments of the trunk appeared to 

 be merely supported by the great pile of chips by which its base was 

 surrounded. The strength of this woodpecker is such, that I have seen 

 it detach pieces of bark seven or eight inches in length at a single blow 

 of its powerful bill, and by beginning at the top branch of a dead tree, 

 tear off the bark, to an extent of twenty or thirty feet, in the course of 

 a few hours, leaping downwards, with its body in an upward position, 

 tossing its head to the right and left, or leaning it against the bark to 

 ascertain the precise spot where the grubs were concealed, and imme- 



