IVOEY-BILLED WOODPECKER. 
11 
this fact. In some places the whole woods, as far as you can 
see around you, are dead, stripped of the bark, their wintry- 
looking arms and bare trunks bleaching in the sun, and tumbling 
in ruins before every blast, presenting a frightful picture of de- 
solation. And yet ignorance and prejudice stubbornly persist 
in directing their indignation against the bird now before us, 
the constant and mortal enemy of these very vermin, as if the 
hand that probed the wound, to extract its cause, should be 
equally detested with that which inflicted it; or as if the thief- 
catcher should be confounded with the thief. Until some effec- 
tual preventive, or more complete mode of destruction, can be 
devised against these insects, and their larvae, I would humbly 
suggest the propriety of protecting, and receiving with proper 
feelings of gratitude, the services of this and the whole tribe of 
Woodpeckers, letting the odium of guilt fall to its proper owners. 
In looking over the accounts given of the Ivory -billed Wood- 
pecker by the naturalists of Europe, I find it asserted, that it 
inhabits from New Jersey to Mexico. I believe, however, that 
few of them are ever seen to the north of Virginia, and very 
few of them even in that state. The first place I observed this 
bird at, when on my way to the south, was about twelve miles 
north of Wilmington, in North Carolina. There I found the 
bird from which the drawing of the figure in the plate was taken. 
This bird was only wounded slightly in the wing, and on being 
caught, uttered a loudly-reiterated, and most piteous note, ex- 
actly resembling the violent crying of a young child; which 
terrified my horse so, as nearly to have cost me my life. It was 
distressing to hear it. I carried it with me in the chair, under 
cover, to Wilmington. In passing through the streets, its affect- 
ing cries surprised every one within hearing, particularly the 
females, who hurried to the doors and windows, with looks of 
alarm and anxiety. I drove on, and on arriving at the piazza of 
the hotel, where I intended to put up, the landlord came for- 
ward, and a number of other persons who happened to be there, 
all equally alarmed at what they heard; this was greatly increased 
by my asking whether he could furnish me with accommoda- 
