THE IVORY-BILLED WOODPECKER. 
219 
Male, 21, 30. Female, 19i, wing 10. 
Common in Texas, Louisiana, and along the Mississippi, to the Ohio. 
Rare on the latter, to Henderson. From Florida to North Carolina. 
Resident. 
Adult Male. 
Bill long, straight, strong, polyhedral, tapering, compressed and truncated 
at the tip ; mandibles nearly equal, both nearly straight in their dorsal out- 
line. Nostrils basal, oval, partly covered by recumbent bristly feathers. 
Head large. Neck long and slender. Body robust. Feet rather short, 
robust ; tarsus strong, scutellate before, scaly on the sides ; two toes before 
and two behind, the inner hind toe shortest ; claws strong, arched, very acute. 
Plumage compact, glossy. Feathers of the head elongated and erectile. 
Wings large, the third and fourth quills longest. Tail long, graduated, of 
twelve tapering stiff feathers worn to a point by being rubbed against the 
bark of trees. 
Bill of an Ivory-white, whence the common name of the bird. Iris bright 
yellow. Feet greyish-blue. The general colour of the plumage is black, 
with violet reflections, mere glossy above. The feathers of the middle and 
hind part of the head are of a vivid deep carmine. A broad band of white 
runs down the neck and back, on either side, commencing narrow under the 
ear, and terminating with the scapulars. The five outer primaries black, the 
rest white towards the end, the secondaries wholly white, so that when the 
wings are closed, the posterior part of the back seems white, although it is 
in reality black. Lateral tail-feathers with a spot of white near the tip of 
each web. 
Length 21 inches, extent of wings 30 ; bill along the back 2§, along the 
gap 3 ; tarsus 2. 
Adult Female. 
The female resembles the male in colouring, but wants the vivid patch on 
the crest, which is wholly black. 
Two of these Woodpeckers, preserved in spirits, have afforded an oppor 
tunity of making the following observations. 
The length to end of tail is 19§ inches, to end of wings 16§, to end of 
claws 15 ; wing from flexure 10 ; tail 91. 
The width of the mouth is 1 inch. The bill, fig. 1, a b, p. 222, is much 
longer than the head, straight, robust, its horny covering of extreme thick- 
ness and solidity. It is bi*oader than high at the base, in the proportion of 
1 inch to 8 twelfths. The upper mandible, a, has its dorsal outline very 
slightly arched and deflected, the ridge narrow, the lateral ridge at the base 
equidistant from the median ridge and the margin, running parallel with the 
former, and passing out at the margin at the distance of 10 twelfths from the 
