24 



IVORY-BILLED WOODPECKER. 



savages, no wonder they should attach great value to it, having 

 both beauty, and, in their estimation, distinguished merit to recom- 

 mend it. 



This bird is not migratory, but resident in the countries where 

 it inhabits. In the low countries of the Carolinas it usually prefers 

 the large-timbered cypress swamps for breeding in. In the trunk of 

 one of these trees, at a considerable height, the male and female 

 alternately, and in conjunction, dig out a large and capacious ca- 

 vity for their eggs and young. Trees thus dug out have frequently 

 been cut down, with sometimes the eggs and young in them. This 

 hole according to information, for I have never seen one myself, is 

 generally a little winding, the better to keep out the weather, and 

 from two to five feet deep. The eggs are said to be generally four, 

 sometimes five, as large as a pullet's, pure white, and equally thick 

 at both ends ; a description that, except in size, very nearly agrees 

 with all the rest of our Woodpeckers. The young begin to be seen 

 abroad about the middle of June. Whether they breed more than 

 once in the same season is uncertain. 



So little attention do the people of the countries where these 

 birds inhabit, pay to the minutia of natural history, that, generally 

 speaking, they make no distinction between the Ivory-billed and 

 Pileated Woodpecker, represented in the same plate ; and it was 

 not till I shewed them the two birds together, that they knew of 

 any difference. Tiie more intelligent and observing part of the 

 natives, however, distinguish them by the name of the large and 

 lesser Log-cocks, They seldom examine them but at a distance, 

 gunpowder being considered too precious to be thrown away on 

 Woodpeckers ; nothing less than a Turkey being thought worth 

 the value of a load. 



The food of this bird consists, I believe, entirely of insects 

 and their larvse. The Pileated Woodpecker is suspected of some- 

 times tasting the Indian corn ; the Ivory-billed never. His com- 

 mon note, repeated every three or four seconds, very much resem- 



