8 
IVORY -BILLED WOODPECKER. 
numerous, and its notes are undeserving the name of song. 
It remains with us all summer ; but its nest has hitherto 
escaped me. It leaves us late in September. Some of them 
probably winter in Georgia, having myself shot several late in 
February, on the borders of the Savannah river. 
Length of the Yellow Red-poll, five inches ; extent, eight ; 
line over the eye, and whole lower parts, rich yellow ; breast, 
streaked with dull red ; upper part of the head, reddish chestnut, 
which it loses in winter ; back, yellow olive, streaked with 
dusky ; rump, and tail-coverts, greenish yellow ; wings, deep 
blackish brown, exteriorly edged with olive ; tail, slightly 
forked, and of the same colour as the wings. 
The female wants the red cap ; and the yellow of the lower 
parts is less brilliant ; the streaks of red on the breast are also 
fewer and less distinct. 
IVORY-BILLED WOODPECKER PICUS PRINCIPALIS. 
Plate XXIX. Fig. 1. 
Picus principalis, Linn. Syst. i. p. 173. 2 Gmel. Syst. i. p. 425 Picus Niger 
Carolinensis, Briss. iv. p. 26. 9 ; Id. 8vo. ii. p. 49. — Pic noir a bee blanc, Luff. 
vii. p. 46. PI. enl. 690. — King of the Woodpeckers, Kalm, ii. p. 85. — White- 
billed Woodpecker, Catesb. Car. i. 6. 16 — Arct. Zool. ii. No. 156. — Lath. Syn. 
ii. p. 553 Bartram, p. 289. — Peak's Museum , No. 1884. 
PICUS PRINCIPALIS. — Linnaeus.* 
Picus principalis, Bonap. Synop. p. 44 — Wagl. Syst. Av. Picus, No. 1. — The Ivory- 
billed Woodpecker, Aud. pi. 66, male and female; Orn. Biog. i. p. 341. 
This majestic and formidable species, in strength and 
magnitude, stands at the head of the whole class of Wood- 
peckers, hitherto discovered. He may be called the king or 
* The genus Picus , or Woodpeckers, with the exception of the Parrots, 
forms the most extensive group among the Scansores, and perhaps one of the 
most natural among the numerous divisions now assigned to the feathered race. 
In a former note we mentioned the difference of form, and corresponding 
modification of habit, that nevertheless existed among them. Most ornitho- 
logists have divided them into three groups only, taking the common form of 
