10 
IVORY-BILLED WOODPECKER. 
His eye is brilliant and daring ; and his whole frame so 
admirably adapted for his mode of life, and method of pro- 
curing subsistence, as to impress on the mind of the examiner 
been painted in vivid and imaginary colouring, and its existence has been 
described to be painful and burdensome in the extreme ; its cries have been 
converted into complaints, and its search for food into exertions of no use. 
We cannot agree to this. The cry of the Woodpecker is wild, and no doubt 
the incessant hewing of holes without an adequate object would be sufficiently 
miserable. These, however, are the pleasures of the bird. The knowledge 
to search after food is implanted in it, and organs most admirably formed to 
prevent exhaustion, and ensure success, have been granted to it. Its cries, 
though melancholy to us, are so from association with the dark forests, and 
the stillness which surrounds their haunts, but perhaps, at the time when we 
judge, are expressive of the greatest enjoyment. An answer of kindness in 
reply to a mate, the calling together of the newly fledged brood, or exultation 
over the discovery of some favourite hoard of food, are what are set down as 
painful and discontented. 
Mr Audubon’s remarks on this splendid species, “ The King of the 
Woodpeckers,” I have transcribed at some length, as indicating the particular 
manner of the typical family of this great group. 
“ The Ivory-billed Woodpecker confines its rambles to a comparatively 
very small portion of the United States, it never having been observed in the 
middle states within the memory of any person now living there. In fact, in 
no portion of these districts does the nature of the woods appear suitable to 
its remarkable habits. 
“ Descending the Ohio, we meet with this splendid bird for the first time 
near the confluence of that beautiful river and the Mississippi ; after which, 
following the windings of the latter, either downwards toward the sea, or 
upwards in the direction of the Missouri, we frequently observe it. On the 
Atlantic coast, North Carolina may be taken as the limit of its distribution, 
although now and then an individual of the species may be accidentally seen in 
Maryland. To the westward of the Mississippi, it is found in all the dense 
forests bordering the streams which empty their waters into that majestic river, 
from the very declivities of the Rocky Mountains. The lower parts of the Caro- 
linas, Georgia, Allabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi, are, however, the most 
favourite resorts of this bird, and in those states it constantly resides, breeds, 
and passes a life of peaceful enjoyment, finding a profusion of food in all the 
deep, dark, and gloomy swamps dispersed throughout them. 
“ The flight of this bird is graceful in the extreme, although seldom pro- 
longed to more than a few hundred yards at a time, unless when it has to cross 
a large river, which it does in deep undulations, opening its wings at first to 
their full extent, and nearly closing them to renew the propelling impulse. The 
