166 
IVORY-BILLED WOODPECKER. 
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 cavity for their eggs and 
young. Trees thus dug out have frequently been cut down, with some- 
times 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 minutit© of natural history, that, generally speaking, 
they make no distinction between the Ivory-billed and Pileated Wood- 
pecker, represented in the same plate ; and it was not till I showed 
them the two birds together, that they knew of any difference. The 
more intelligent and observing i^art of the natives, however, distinguish 
them by the name of the large and lesser Logcochs. They seldom ex- 
amine them but at a distance, gunpowder being considered too jsrccious 
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 
larvoe. The Pileated Woodpecker is suspected of sometimes tasting the 
Indian corn ; the Ivory-billed never. His common note, repeated every 
three or four seconds, very much resembles the tone of a trumpet, or the 
high note of a clarionet, and can plainly be distinguished at the distance 
of more than half a mile ; seeming to be immediately at hand, though 
perhaps more than one hundred yards off. This it utters while mount- 
ing along the trunk, or digging into it. At these times it has a stately 
and novel appearance ; and the note instantly attracts the notice of a 
stranger. Along the borders of the Savannah river, between Savannah 
and Augusta, I found them very frequently ; but my horse no sooner 
heard their trumpet-like note, than remembering his former alarm, he 
became almost ungovernal;)le. 
The Ivory-billed Woodpecker is twenty inches long, and thirty inches 
in extent ; the general color is black, with a considerable gloss of green 
when exposed to a good light ; iris of the eye vivid yellow ; nosti'ils 
covered with recumbent white hairs ; fore part of the head black, rest 
of the crest of a most splendid red, spotted at the bottom with white, 
which is only seen when the crest is erected, as represented in the plate ; 
this long red plumage being ash-colored at its base, above that white, 
and ending in brilliant red ; a stripe of white proceeds from a point, 
about half an inch below each eye, passes down each side of the neck, 
