30 



THE OOLOOIST 



along the road this fall I had the 

 pleasure of witnessing for the first 

 time the Downy Woodpecker catch an 

 insect on the wing. I had never hap- 

 pened to have read of such an occur- 

 ence so I experienced all the thrills 

 of a new discovery, but alas, like 

 many an other discoverer and invent- 

 or some one had just been a little 

 ahead of me; some dozens of years in 

 my case. At the time I made mental 

 note that later; sometime in the win- 

 ter when not so rushed, I would note 

 my (discovery) ? in the Oologist. Mean- 

 while I have been reading Our Birds 

 in Their Haunts and there in black 

 and white was my new discovery. 

 Fame had taken wings and flown 

 away. Yet, I deem the occurence 

 worth a line, for there may be some 

 one, like myself, who has never wit- 

 nessed the Downy Woodpecker in the 

 role of a 'Flycatcher' as indeed such 

 was his act. Downy was on the top 

 of one of a line of telephone poles 

 skirting the roadway. I was too far 

 away to be sure of his identity when 

 he left the pole and flying with a 

 motion similar to a Kingbird he dart- 

 ed off over the open field; some rods, 

 reaching its prey (some insect I sup- 

 pose) it hovered a moment as a Blue- 

 bird or Kingbird will when in the act 

 of catching a fiy; then back again to 

 its perch on the top of the pole. I 

 witnessed all these movements suppos- 

 ing the bird to be a Bluebird and that 

 I was seeing what I had noticed many 

 times before. As I approached the 

 telephone pole the bird darted off the 

 top and around behind out of sight in 

 a characteristic woodpecker way. It 

 was then that I noticed that the sup- 

 posed bluebird was a Downy Wood- 

 pecker in a different and new role, 

 to me; a role in which tlie actor ap- 

 peared fully capable of performing. 

 The Downy is a common woodpecker 

 in this section; one we see most often, 



as it is a frequent visitor to our orch- 

 ards and dooryards in search of food. 

 My acquaintance with this woodpecker 

 began when my interest in ornithology 

 was first aroused, at a very immature 

 age. A boy friend and myself not 

 knowing the proper time to look for 

 eggs; which we had commenced a 

 (collection)? of, and which consisted 

 mostly of Robins, Bluebirds and 

 Swallows at that time; the same 

 which for the reason of parental dis- 

 pleasure was packed in sheeps wool 

 in a box, kept well hid under the barn. 

 We had found a rotten stub of a Rock- 

 maple which had a small hole in it 

 about ten feet up from the ground, 

 from which flew a small Woodpecker 

 when we rapped on the stub. This 

 was well along in June. We had 

 found a prize, something not in our 

 (extensive) collection; a prize we 

 wished the worst way, but we saw no 

 way to secure the eggs except to cut 

 the stub down, which we did forth ; 

 with; the result was five very much 

 smashed up, naked Young Downy 

 Woodpeckers. 



Well, my parents found this out 

 through some channel to me unknown 

 (I had neglected to mention our find) 

 and you can imagine the result. I 

 broke my eggs and gave up collecting 

 for the time being. Thus my early 

 acquaintance with the Downy Wood- 

 pecker began. This Woodpecker pre- 

 fers to nest in an orchard, but is also 

 found plentiful in stubs along the 

 shores of ponds and rivers; a swampy 

 tract recently overflown and there- 

 fore with many dead stubs is a rare 

 good chance for the Downy. They al- 

 ways use a hole as a nesting site; 

 drilling a new hole each year; they al- 

 so drill special holes in the fall or 

 early winter as a temporary refuge 

 during the winter, which are deserted 

 in the spring. The eggs average five 

 in number laid on a bed of fine chip.s 



