AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY.
          GENUS XXII. PICUS. WOODPECKER.
          SPECIES I. PICUS PRINCIP2LIS.
            1VORY-BILLED WOODPECKER.
                  [Plate XXIX. -Fig. 1.]
 Picus principalis, LINN. Syst. i, p. 1 73, 2.-GMEL. Syst. i, p. 425.
   -Picus niger Carolinensis cristatus, BRISS. IV, p. 26, 9.-I'ic
   noir d bec blanc, BUFF. VII, p. 46.-FPl. Enl. 690.-K ing of the
   Woodpeckers, KALM, vol. II, p. 85.-White-billed Woodpecker,
   CATESB. Car. i, 16.-.-.rct. Zool. ii, MNo. 156.-LATH. Syn. ii, p.
   553.-BARTRAM, P. 0,89.-PEALE'S .MuseuMn, JV'O. 1884.
   THIS majestic and formidable species, in strength and mag-
nitude, stands at the head of the whole class of Woodpeckers
hitherto discovered. He may be called the king or chief of his
tribe; and Nature seems to have designed him a distinguished
characteristic, in the superb carmine crest, and bill of polished
ivory, with which she has ornamented him. His eye is brilliant
and daring; and his whole frame so admirably adapted for his
mode of life, and method of procuring subsistence, as to impress
on the mind of the examiner the most reverential ideas of the
Creator. His manners have also a dignity in them superior to
the common herd of Woodpeckers. Trees, shrubbery, orchards,
rails, fence-posts, and old prostrate logs, are alike interesting to
those, in their humble and indefatigable search for prey; but
the royal hunter now before us, scorns the humility of such
situations, and seeks the most towering trees of the forest;
seeming particularly attached to those prodigious cypress
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