64 BULLETIN 174, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



we cannot be for long near one of these little birds, hidden high among 

 leafy branches, before we learn of its presence. Within a few minutes, 

 long before we catch sight of it, we are almost certain to hear its voice. 



Its call note is a single abrupt syllable, like tchich. Although this 

 note is of sufficient volume to carry a considerable distance, it is not 

 a loud note even when heard at short range. As in the case of many 

 bird notes, it is recognizable from the voice of any other bird here- 

 abouts once we have become familiar with it, yet it is not easy to say 

 how it differs from numerous other calls that might be suggested by 

 the same letters. I believe one characteristic of the note that helps 

 us distinguish it is its shortness — it is over almost as soon as begun, 

 like a dot in the telegraph code. But in spite of being sharp, it is a 

 modest little sound ; it does not ring through the woods like the wild 

 call of the hairy woodpecker. 



Another note is a long whinny made up of a dozen or more tchichs. 

 These increase in rapidity soon after the beginning of the series, and 

 the pitch drops rather sharply. Near the close, the volume diminishes, 

 and the whinny ends with a "dying fall." 



Elizabeth Sampson (1934) brings this note very clearly to our mind 

 when she speaks of it as "a handful of his staccato notes * * * 

 flung out in a rapid run, gaining speed as they came, till they almost 

 tumbled over each other at the end." 



This whinny is also given, although not often, without any fall in 

 pitch. 



The downy woodpecker has other notes in its vocabulary, some of 

 which are described under courtship, but, compared to the two noted 

 above, they are rarely heard. It may be that some of these notes are 

 only modifications of the call note, uttered with a slightly changed 

 inflection. One, a single short note, has a distinct vocal quality. 



Of the young birds in the nest. Dr. Arthur A. Allen (1928) says 

 that they "keep up an incessant chippering, especially when they get 

 the least bit hungry, and at times they sound almost like a bee-hive, 

 from the ground." 



After the young birds have left the nest, I have often heard them 

 give a series of tchicks similar to the whinny of the adults, but in a 

 weaker voice and all on the same pitch. However, this note evidently 

 varies, for Francis H. Allen says in his notes that the young have also 

 a rattle resembling the kingfisher rattle of D. mllosus, but fainter and 

 falling in pitch like the similar note of the adult. 



Field marks. — ^The downy, the smallest of our woodpeckers, may 

 be separated at once from any other woodpecker, except the hairy, by 

 the broad white stripe down the back. 



The hairy is half again as large as the downy, but in situations where 

 comparative size counts little, the downy may be recognized by its short 



