WOODPECKERS 
391. Texas Kingfisher. 
Ceryle americana septentrionalis 
Range. — Southern Texas, south through Mex- 
cio. 
This variety is much smaller than the Belted, 
length 8 inches, and is a lustrous greenish 
above, variously speckled with white, and is 
white below, spotted with greenish. It is a 
common and resident species in southern 
Texas, where it lays its eggs in holes in the 
hanks along streams. The eggs are white and 
glossy, and measure .95 x.70. 
WOODPECKERS. Order XV. PICI. 
Family PICIDAE 
Woodpeckers are well known birds having 
sharp chisel-like bills, sharply pointed and 
stiffened tail feathers, and strongly clawed feet 
with two toes forward and two back, except in 
one genus. Their food is insects and grubs, 
which they get by boring in trees, and from under the bark, clinging to the 
sides of trunks or the under side of branches with their strong curved nails, 
aided by the tail, for a prop. They are largely resident where found. 
Texas Kingfisher 
392. Ivory-billed Woodpecker. 
Campephilus principalis. 
Ivory-billed Woodpecker 
many as six pure white glossy 
Range. — Locally distributed, and rare, in 
Florida, along the Gulf coast and north casual- 
ly to South Carolina and Arkansas. 
This is the largest of the Woodpeckers found 
within our borders, being 20 inches in length. 
But one other American species exceeds it in 
size, the Imperial Woodpecker of Mexico, which 
reaches a length of nearly two feet; as this 
species is found within a few miles of our 
Mexican border, it may yet be classed as a 
North American bird. The present species has 
a large, heavy, ivory-white bill. They can 
readily be identified, at a great distance, from 
the Pileated Woodpecker by the large amount 
of white on the secondaries. They used to be 
not uncommonly seen in many sections of the 
southeast but are now found very locally and 
only in the largest and remote woods. They 
nest in holes in large trees in the most impen- 
etrable swamps; laying three, and probably as 
eggs measuring 1.45 x 1.00. 
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