DOWNY WOODPECKER. 99 
XXVITI. 
DOWNY WOODPECKER. 
THE downy looks so much like the hairy that it 
would be easy to confound them if it were not for 
the difference in size. The downy is fully two 
inches shorter than the hairy. As you see him 
on a tree at a distance, the white stripe on his 
back is bounded by black, or as Thoreau expresses 
it, ‘his cassock is open behind, showing his white 
robe.” Above this stripe is a large check of black 
and white, and below on a line with the tips of 
his wings seems to be a fine black and white 
check, while, if he is an adult male, a scarlet 
patch on the back of his head sets off his black 
and white dress. 
Seen only a rod away, as I see him through the 
window in winter, clinging to a tree, and picking 
at the suet hung out for him, the white central 
stripe of his back is marked off above by a black 
line which goes across to meet the black of his 
shoulders. From the middle of this and at right 
angle to it, another black line goes straight up 
towards his head, so carrying on the line of the 
white stripe, and forming the dividing line of the 
two white blocks. This, again, meets the point 
of a black V, so broad as to be almost a straight 
line. On this V lies the red patch of the back 
of his head. Over his eye is a white line that ex- 
