-o Bird Studies. 



This is the smallest of our Woodpeckers in Northeastern North 



America, being generally less than seven inches long. Its prevailing colors 



are black and white. There is a clear, broad stripe of 

 Downy Wood- , • , , r i i r i , • 



Decker white down the centre oi the back and numerous white 



Dryobates pubescens spots on the wing feathers, also a white stripe above and 

 me .anus wa.ns. . ^^^ below the eyc. In the adult female the white stripes 

 above the eye are interrupted from joining by a narrow stripe of black at the 

 back of the head. In the adult male a bright scarlet band connects these 

 stripes. In young birds, the whole top of the head shows scarlet feathers 

 mixed with black. The middle tail feathers are black and the other ones 

 white with black bars crossing them. This is a resident bird throughout the 

 middle and northern parts of the Eastern United States and northward. It 

 breeds in holes, generally excavated in some dead limb. The eggs are pure 

 white, three to six in number, about three quarters of an inch long and five 

 eighths of an inch in their other diameter. 



This is the form occupying our more southern regions, and its chief 



distinctions from its more northern conofener are its smaller average size 



and its brownish white breast. Recent investigation shows 



Southern Downy j-j^^j ^j^jg ^^^g ^j^g form described by Linnaeus and it is so 



nr„„v,„ c h„.^n=?i'''n„ > I'egarded by the authorities on nomenclature. It seems 



Dryobates pubescens(Linn.). ^ -' 



hardly necessary to say that in general habits it closely 

 resembles its more northern representative, though as I have seen it in 

 Florida it is more of a wood than a house bird. 



The Southern Downy Woodpecker is the geographical race, occupying 

 the South Atlantic and Gulf States from South Carolina to Florida and 

 Texas. 



There are two distinct color phases of this bird that do not correlate 



with age, sex, or the season of the year, and which, though in their extremes 



are very different, yet intergrade completely. The one 



Screech Owl. extreme of color is bright tawny red, and the other silvery 



Megascops asio (Linn.). *- "^ 



gray, darker on the upper parts. These colors are on a 

 white or grayish ground. The length of the bird varies from nine to ten 

 inches. Small owls, they have pronounced horns or ear tufts, and arc the 

 only oivls of this size in the region under consideration that arc distijignishcd 



