244 Sketches of Some Common Birds. 



peckers invito our present consideration. It is the prac- 

 tice among bird biographers to describe the habits of the 

 hairy woodpecker at some length, and then to characterize 

 our little downy friend by saying that in general colora- 

 tion and esse'' tial habits it is the miniature of the hairy 

 woodpecker. The downy woodpecker, however, has a 

 marked individuality of its own; and while much that is 

 written of the hairy woodpecker applies equally to the 

 downy, the latter appeals to us by coming among us more 

 frequently, and thus affording us better opportunities to 

 study its habits about our homes in town as well as in the 

 country. 



The habitat of the downy woodpecker is eastern and 

 northern North America, ranging northwest throughout 

 Alaska. It is a permanent resident, and hence it can be 

 found when most of the birds are absent. The winter 

 birds of central Illinois and adjacent localities in the up- 

 land prairie regions are so few that they arouse additional 

 interest because of their welcome presence when the reg- 

 ular tide of bird life is at the ebb. When the drifting 

 leaves and sombre changes of late September and early 

 October indicate that the season of gayety and song has 

 ended, the summer birds rapidly disappear from their re- 

 sorts, and the enthusiastic lover of animated nature feels 

 that much of the cheer and brightness of the locality has 

 vanished with his avian friends. Some of the birds, re- 

 gardless of the frosty breath of approaching winter, linger 

 among us, and thus afford us opportunities of observing 

 the habits of birds amid hardships which few of our 

 feathered friends will face. The limited number of winter 

 residents in any locality renders the formation of their 

 acquaintance comparatively easy to the industrious ob- 

 server, and such acquaintance will serve as a substantial 

 basis for the study of the summer birds as they return 

 to us. 



Few persons will have any difficulty in identifying che 

 downy woodpecker, for he has the distinction of being 

 our smallest representative of a group unusually well 

 defined. Who is likely to mistake a flycatcher, or a 

 warbler, or a vireo, for a creature so unique and original 

 as a woodpecker ? True, the red-headed woodpecker does 



