82 THE FLICKER. 



spicuous if not mimetic plumage. Its very natural advantages 

 over all other members of the tribe inhabiting the same regions 

 would tend to its preservation, increase and comfort when the 

 less versatile or adaptive species decreased or became extinct 

 under changed conditions ; exceptions being made to the 

 Downy {Dryobates pjibescens) , for which there appears a dis- 

 tinctive place, and whose dwarfishness exempts it from 

 persecution by man — Nature's worst enemy. 



