_Campephilus principalis_
Our largest Woodpecker, black with a white stripe
down each side of the neck, white showing in the
wing in flight, the male with a flaming red crest,
the female with a black one and both with an
ivory-white bill. L. 20.
_Range._ Formerly southeastern United States to
North Carolina; now rare and local in the wilder,
less settled portions of the Gulf States.
When man appears, the Ivory-bill disappears. This is not alone due to
the destruction of the birds' haunts but to the bird's shy, retiring
nature. Its days are numbered even more surely than are those of the
forests it inhabits.
The nesting cavity is usually made in a cypress some forty feet from the
ground, and 3-5 white eggs are laid in March.