Downy Woodpecker. 245 



behave quite thrush-like when it varies its diet with our 

 apples and pears. We admit that the flicker often sits 

 down to dine in the pasture with the ease and air of the 

 meadow lark. But the downy woodpecker is too observ- 

 ant of the peculiar practices of its family to mislead the 

 observer of its restless movements, and hence it is easily 

 identified by the discriminating novice. The chattering 

 chickadee or the roving nuthatch will certainly bring the 

 little snare drummer within easy observation. There- 

 after our further acquaintance with him will rest chiefly 

 upon our ability and zeal as a bird -gazer. 



The chief colors of the downy woodpecker are black 

 and white, the former serving as the ground upon which 

 are placed the white trimmings. He has a well marked 

 line of white down the back, and two white stripes on the 

 side of the head, as well as two stripes of black. His 

 black coat isgayly ornamented with spots of white, which 

 markings are supposed to give him some resemblance to 

 the guinea-fowl in coloration, and hence he is called in 

 some localities the "little guinea woodpecker." This 

 dapper little rambler of the woods wears a neat white vest 

 as a contrast to his mottled coat, and adorns his tail by 

 sticking two white feathers in each side. To add to his 

 appearance and that others may distinguish him from his 

 similarly attired spouse, he has a patch of bright red on 

 the back of the neck. Some persons call him the " little 

 sapsucker," and thus distinguish him from the hairy 

 woodpecker, which is known popularly as the " big sap- 

 sucker." He is thus designated because it is popularly 

 thought that he relishes the sap of the trees into which 

 he drives his probing bill. Other species of woodpeckers 

 are also known by this indefinite and misleading title, 

 which has become a sort of general term applied to any 

 bird woodpecker-like in movements, whose habits are not 

 commonly understood. 



There is one genuine sapsucker, the yellow-bellied 

 woodpecker. It bores into the bark of favorite trees until 

 it reaches the tender sapwood, which it eats with the sap 

 that flows from the numerous shallow holes it drills. This 

 genuine sapsucker hurts the trees frequently in the early 

 spring, but both the hairy and the downy woodpecker are 



