CABANIS'S WOODPECKER. 55 



acorns. At this season I have often seen this species around slaughter houses, 

 picking- up stra}- bits of meat or fat, and have also seen it pecking- at haunches 

 of venison hung up in the open air. It is a rather unsocial Ijird at all times, 

 and it is rare to see more than a pair together, excepting when still caring for 

 their young to which they appear to be very devoted for some tinie after these 

 have left their nests. 



Its nesting habits are entirely similar to tliose of JJr/johafes villosus; both 

 sexes share the w^ork in excavating the nesting site, as well as the duty of incu- 

 bation, which lasts about fifteen days. Their holes are usually located from 12 

 to 18 feet from the ground, and occasionally as low as 3 feet, or again in the dead 

 top of a tall pine, fully 50 feet up, and it breeds earlier tlian any other Wi:)od- 

 pecker found in the same localities. The number of eggs laid to a set varies 

 from three to six; those of four are by far the most common; sets of five are 

 only occasionally met with, while sets of six are very unusual. Mr. Denis Gale 

 has taken a set of six, and I also found one. The eggs lie on the fine chips 

 left in the bottom of the cavity, and are occasionally well packed into these, 

 so that only about one-half of the egg is visible. They resendjle the eggs 

 of Dryohafcs villosus in color, but those of an elliptical ovate shape are more 

 common than the oval and elliptical ovals, averaging, therefore, more in length, 

 while there is proportionably less difference in then- short diameter. 



The average measurements of forty-four specimens in the United States 

 National ]\Iuseum collection is 24.95 by 18.4U millimetres, or about 0.1)8 b}- 0.73 

 inch. The largest egg of the series measures 26. IG by 18.80 millimetres, or 

 1.03 by 0.74 inches; the smallest, 23.37 by 17.78 milhmetres,or 0.92 by 0.70 incli. 



The type specimen. No. 19422 (not figured), from a set of three eggs, 

 Bendire collection, was taken by the writer in the Blue Mountains, near Camp 

 Harney, Oregon,on May 29, 1875. 



21. Dryobates pubescens (Linnaeus). 



DOWNY WOODPECKER. 



Ficus puhcsccnn Linnaeus, Systema I^atiirre, ed. 13, I, 1700, 175. 

 I)[ryohates\ puhescens Cabanis, Museum Heineauuui, IV, June 15, 18G3, 02. 



(B 70, 299, E 361, G 440, U 394.) 



Geographical range: Eastern and northern North America ; from Florida and the 

 Gulf States north through the Dominion of Canada, in southern Ijabrador, to about latitude 

 55° N.; thence in a northwesterly direction through the Northeast Territory, Keewatin, 

 and the Northwest Territory to northern Alaska, to about latitude 00^ N. ; we.st to Mani- 

 toba, North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, the Indian Territory, and eastern Texas. 

 Irregularly to Montana, Colorado, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and California. Acci- 

 dental in England. 



The Downy Woodpecker, also known as the "Little Sapsucker" and "Little 

 Guinea Woodpecker," is the smallest of our Picid(e, closely resembling a Hairy 

 Woodpecker in coloration, l)ut nuich smaller. Like it, it is an extremely hard}' 



