. Birds and nature . ting seasonof the following year. The young arefed and cared for by both parent nests are usually situated at leastforty or fifty feet above the ground andthe excavation may be twenty or moreinches in depth and is usually quite alittle larger at the bottom than at thetop. The entrance hole is oval in shaperather than round, which is the shape ofthe entrance hole of the nesting cavitiesof other woodpeckers. As some of theexcavations of these birds are three feetin depth, it does not seem strange thatthe female works from one to threeweeks in preparing her T
. Birds and nature . ting seasonof the following year. The young arefed and cared for by both parent nests are usually situated at leastforty or fifty feet above the ground andthe excavation may be twenty or moreinches in depth and is usually quite alittle larger at the bottom than at thetop. The entrance hole is oval in shaperather than round, which is the shape ofthe entrance hole of the nesting cavitiesof other woodpeckers. As some of theexcavations of these birds are three feetin depth, it does not seem strange thatthe female works from one to threeweeks in preparing her These Woodpeckers are very silentat all times so far as their voices are con-cerned. Especially is this true duringthe breeding season. The very shrillnotes which they do utter at times aresounded while on their wing and are thenotes of both sexes. They also call eachother by rapping on the dry limb of atree. They rap so loud and fast that thesound produced has been likened to thesound of the roll of a snare drum. 122. FROM COL. CHI. ACAD. SCIENCES 141 IVORY-BILLED WOODPECKER. (Campephilus principalis).}i Life-size. COPYRIGHT 1900, BY A. W. MUMFORD, CHICAGO The food of the Ivory-billed Wood-peckers consists of insects and their lar-vae which are found in decaying the v^inter they will feed upon nutsand it is said will store acorns for useduring this season. One observer says:I have seen them destroy the nests ofthe gray squirrels to obtain the acornsand nuts they had put by for the would sit on the top of the nestand with a few strokes of their bill scat-ter it in every direction. The blows which one of these birds delivers whenexcavating a limb in searching for larvaeis simply terrific and has been describedas sounding like the blows of a hammerupon the tree. Audubon tells us thatthey are very fond of wild grapes, andalso eat blackberries and persimmons, butit is well known that they do not disturbstanding corn or orchard fruits. Theyare certainly very usefu
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