DOWNY WOODPECKER 223 



Downy Woodpecker. Dryobates pubescens medianus 

 6.83. Bill .68 



Ad. $. — Upper parts black; stripe above and below eye, 

 middle of back, and bars across the wing white ; outer tail-feathers 

 white, barred with black; under parts white; a scarlet patch at 

 the back of the head. Ad. 9 • — Similar, without the scarlet patch. 

 Im. — Young males in summer have a reddish-brown patch at the 

 back of the head. 



Nest, in a hole in a dead limb, from ten to thirty feet up. Eggs, 

 white. 



The Downy Woodpecker is a common permanent resident 

 of New England and New York. It frequents woodland, 

 orchards, and shade trees. In winter it often follows a wan- 

 dering band of Chickadees, and may easily be attracted to 

 a bone or piece of suet hung on a limb near the house. 

 Occasionally in spring one sees a Downy flying through the 

 trees as if crazy, or two sometimes have a wild chase in and 

 out of the tree trunks. 



In March the male begins to drum on some dry resonant 

 limb, and by April the pair have excavated a nesting-hole 

 in a dead limb in some woodland tree. The call-note of the 

 Downy is a sharp chick, and it also gives, less frequently, a 

 shrill cry with a rapid downward fall, suggesting in form 

 the whinny of a horse. The young, when following the 

 parents, have a shrill whinnying cry like the adults, but 

 with less downward inflection. 



The attitude of the Downy, when climbing the trunk or 

 large limb of a tree, distinguishes it readily from the smaller 

 Black and White Warbler. It is always erect, parallel, that 

 is, with the limb, sometimes above a horizontal limb, some- 

 times on the under side, but never peering over each side as 

 the Warbler does. Its progress is by jerks ; it often backs 

 down, tail first, but never comes down head first, like the 

 Nuthatch. Occasionally it perches like a song-bird across a 

 small twig. (See, also, following species.) 



