46 BULLETIN 174, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



The southern downy woodpecker, D. p. pubescens^ is smaller, from 

 the more southern parts of its range decidedly smaller, than the more 

 northern bird, D. p. medianus^ intergrading with it where the two 

 ranges meet ; the under parts are more brownish, and the white mark- 

 ings of the wings and tail will average of less extent. 



The haunts of this woodpecker are similar to those of its northern 

 relative, due allowance being made for the difference in environment. 

 It is a more sociable species than the hairy woodpecker and less of 

 a woodland bird. 



In Florida, according to Arthur H. Howell (1932), "it occurs alike 

 in pine woods, hammocks, orchards, roadside hedges, and dooryards." 



Nesting. — Mr. Howell (1932) says that, in Florida, "the nest of the 

 downy is usually dug in a decaying limb of a tree or occasionally in a 

 fence post, and may be anywhere from 5 to 50 feet above the ground." 

 Harold H. Bailey (1925) says that "for the nesting site, they usually 

 select a dead stub of some live tree, preferring a hard one to a soft or 

 decayed wood. The cavity is drilled each year anew by the birds, the 

 hole being about one and a quarter inches in diameter and eight to 

 twelve inches deep, varying in height from twenty to sixty feet above 

 ground." John Helton, Jr., tells me of a nest he found on April 20, 

 near Troy, Ala., that "was drilled in a rotten oak limb, which had 

 fallen, been caught, and was suspended among the branches of a pine. 

 It contained three small young and one infertile egg. The mother 

 bird fed the young with great regularity every three minutes." M. G. 

 Vaiden, of Kosedale, Miss., writes to me of a nest 35 feet up in a dead 

 snag of a pecan tree; the limb was four inches in diameter and the 

 cavity only five inches deep. George Finlay Simmons (1925) says 

 that, in Texas, it nests "10 to 20 feet from ground in small dead 

 deciduous trees, or in old stumps or telegraph poles." 



Eggs. — The eggs are like those of the northern downy but slightly 

 smaller. The measurements of 25 eggs average 19.43 by 15.24 milli- 

 meters ; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 20.8 by 14.9, 20.6 

 by 16.7, and 17.78 by 13.46 millimeters. 



Behavior. — Writing of the habits of these woodpeckers in the sand- 

 hills of North Carolina, Milton P. Skinner (1928) says: 



They are seen at times with Chickadees, red-cockaded woodpeclvers, Brown- 

 headed Nutliatches, Kinglets and Juucos. And these associations seem to be 

 actual and usual, and not temporary and accidental ones as they are between 

 most birds of different species. The downy woodpeckers are peaceable little 

 fellows but other birds will impose on them. I have seen a yellow-bellied sap- 

 sucker and a mob of three or four English Sparrows near Pine Bluff chasing 

 one about. But downy was a fast flier and outflew all his tormentors each 

 time. Their flight Is undulating and typical of the woodpecker family. These 

 woodpeckers have one trait of the Brown Creepers— they prefer to work up 

 a tree and fly dou>n to the base of the next one. 



