You and the others who followed the fortunes of the little runaway with
so much interest will be pleased to hear that Mr. James Otis has gone to
Florida in a little steam-yacht named _Toby Tyler_ after his hero.
Doubtless some account of his trip will be published in YOUNG PEOPLE.
Many thanks for the sea-beans.
The ivory-billed woodpecker is chiefly an inhabitant of the extreme
Southern States, and especially those which border on the Gulf of
Mexico. Very few are ever found north of Virginia. It is not a migratory
bird, but is a resident where it is found. Mr. Audubon did meet one or
two of the species so far north as Maryland, but they seemed away from
home. West of the Lower Mississippi, it is found in all the dense
forests, but the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, and
Mississippi are its favorite resorts. It bores a hole in the trunk of a
live tree, early in the spring, for its nest, always at a great height
from the ground. The male and female birds relieve each other in this
work. The eggs are four or five in number, pure white, equally thick at
both ends, and as large as pullets' eggs. The food of this woodpecker
consists of beetles, larvæ, and large grubs, and it has a great fondness
for wild grapes and ripe persimmons.
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