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MARK CATESBY (1682-1749)

The Largest White-Bill Wood-Pecker and the Willow Oak

c.1722-6

RCIN 924829

Catesby could have encountered the spectacular ivory-bill, the largest species of woodpecker, in the forests of Florida and the Bahamas. By the 1950s it was thought to be extinct, but recently there have been reported sightings of the bird and there are hopes that the species has survived.


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