Reference has already been made to the Cuban variety of the Ivory-billed
Woodpecker named C. bairdi by Mr. Cassin, and differing in smaller size; extension of the white cheek-stripe to the very base of the bill, and the excess in length of the upper black feathers of the crest over the scarlet. These features appear to be constant, and characteristic of a local race.
For the reasons already adduced, we drop C. imperialis from the list of North American birds, although given as such by Audubon.
Campephilus principalis.
Habits. So far as we have information in regard to the geographical distribution of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, it is chiefly restricted in its range to the extreme Southern States, and especially to those bordering on the Gulf of Mexico. Wilson states that very few, if any, are ever found north of Virginia, and not many even in that State. His first specimen was obtained near Wilmington, N. C. It is not migratory, but is a resident where found.
Mr. Audubon, who is more full than any other writer in his account of this bird, assigns to it a more extended distribution. He states that in descending the Ohio River he met with it near the confluence of that river with the Mississippi, and adds that it is frequently met with in following the windings of the latter river either downwards towards the sea, or upwards in the direction of the Missouri. On the Atlantic he was inclined to make North Carolina the limit of its northern distribution, though now and then individuals of the species have been accidentally met with as far north as Maryland. To the westward of the Mississippi he states that it is found in all the dense forests bordering the streams which empty into it, from the very declivities of the Rocky Mountains. The lower parts of the Carolinas, Georgia, North Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi, are, however, its favorite resorts, and in those States it constantly resides.
It was observed by Dr. Woodhouse in the timber on the Arkansas River, and in Eastern Texas, but quite rarely in both places. It was not, however, met with in any other of the government expeditions, either to the Pacific, in the survey of the railroad routes, or in that for the survey of the Mexican boundary line. It is given as a bird of Cuba by De la Sagra, in his catalogue
of the birds of that island, as observed by him, October, 1850, and by Dr. John Gundlach, in his list of the birds that breed in Cuba. It is not mentioned by Gosse among the birds of Jamaica, nor by the Newtons as found in St. Croix. As it is not a migratory bird, it may be regarded as breeding in all its localities, except where it is obviously an accidental visitant.
Wilson, who never met with the nest of this Woodpecker, states, on the authority of reliable informants, that it breeds in the large-timbered cypress swamps of the Carolinas. In the trunks of these trees at a considerable height from the ground, both parents working alternately, these birds dig out a large and capacious cavity for their eggs and young. Trees thus dug out have frequently been cut down with both the eggs and the young in them. The hole was described to Wilson as generally a little winding, to keep out the rain, and sometimes five feet deep. The eggs were said to be generally four, sometimes five in number, as large as pullets’, pure white, and equally thick at both ends. The young make their appearance about the middle or end of June.