564 
ZYGODACTYLI. 
tonness, in these particulars, should be so productive of 
cruelty, devastation, and injurious policy, in regard to 
the animals with whose amusing and useful company 
nature has so wonderfully and beneficently favored us. 
The length of this species is about 12 inches, the alar extent 20. 
The back and wings above are of an umber-color, transversely barred 
with black ; the upper part of the head inclines to cinereous ; cheeks 
and region round the eye cinnamon-color, the throat and chin a light- 
er tint of the same ; from the lower mandible a strip of black de- 
scending to the throat ; a crimson crescent on the hind head ; sides 
of the neck bluish-grey ; a black broadish crescent on the breast. 
Below yellowish-white, each feather with a distinct round central 
black spot, those on the thighs and vent heart-shaped. Lower side of 
the wing and tail, as well as the shafts of most of the larger feathers 
golden-yellow. Rump white ; the tail-coverts white, and curiously 
serrated with black ; upper side of the tail and tip below black, the 2 
exterior feathers serrated with whitish ; shafts black towards the tips, 
the 2 middle ones almost wholly so. Bill inches long, of a dusky 
horn-color. Legs and feet light blue. Iris hazel. In the group 
given by Audubon, the size appears somewhat smaller, the crimson 
crescent on the hind-head much duller, the head more grey, the 
lower mandible pale bluish, and the under side of the tail, in the male, 
almost entirely green . Can this southern bird be the same species 
with ours ? 
* With the bill straight , and carinated above and beloiv (proper Wood- 
peckers). — t The feet 4-toed. 
IVORY-BILLED WOODPECKER. 
(Picus principalis, L. Wilson, iv. p. 20. pi. 29. fig. 1. [male.] Au- 
dubon pi. 66. Orn. i. p. 341. [a very imposing and spirited 
group.] Phil. Museum, No. 1884.) 
Sp. Charact. — Black ; crest red and black ; secondaries, rump, 
and a stripe on each side, white ; the bill white. — In the female 
and young the crest is wholly black. 
This large and splendid species is a native of Brazil, 
Mexico, and the Southern States, being seldom seen to 
the north of Virginia, and but rarely in that state. It is 
a constant resident in the countries where it is found, in 
