BIRD BIOGRAPHIES 



deadening. The membrane which surrounds the brain 

 is very thick and strong." ^ 



The Downy is the smallest member of the woodpecker 

 family in North America, and is one of the most useful. 

 He is especially fond of orchards and shade trees, 

 and not only devours insects that infest them during the 

 spring and summer, but eats the eggs they laid in the 

 crevices of the bark during the winter. One Downy alone 

 is of inestimable value in an orchard or a grove. Mr. 

 Forbush writes as follows: "When the Metropolitan 

 Park Commission first began to set out young trees along 

 the parkways of Boston, some species of trees were at- 

 tacked by borers; but the Downy Woodpeckers found them 

 out and extracted the grubs, saving most of the tre^. 



"The untiring industry of this bird and the perfection 

 of its perceptive powers may be shown by the experience 

 of Mr. Bailey. On March 28, 1899, a Downy Woodpecker 

 that he watched climbed over and inspected one hundred 

 and eighty-one woodland trees between 9:40 A. m. and 

 12:15 P.M., and made twenty-six excavations for food. 

 Most of these holes exposed galleries in the trunks in high 

 branches where wood-boring ants were hiding. . . . These 

 ants often gain an entrance at some unprotected spot on a 

 living tree, and so excavate the wood of the trunk that the 

 tree is blown down by the wind. This woodpecker acts as 

 a continual check on the increase of such ants." ^ 



The Downy may easily be attracted to our yards by a 

 piece of suet fastened securely to a tree. During the past 

 winter, one has sought my suet-cage, in company with 

 chickadees and nuthatches. This spring he brought his 



3&4From "Useful Birds and Their Protection," by E. H. Forbush, 

 pages 245, 246, 252, 253. 



[68] 



