126 



Birds of Pennsylvania. 



wood of our i'ruit and forest trees ; these he is enabled to obtain by 

 chiselling out a small hole with his p(!^lrful bill, and drawing thera 

 from their lurking-places with his long barbed tongue. He also eats 

 some small fruits and berries, but never, so far as I am aware, the 

 buds or blossoms of trees, as some persons assert. — E. A. Samuels. 



394. Dryobates pubescens (Linn.^. 



Downy Woodpecker. 



- Desckiption. 



A miniature of D. villosus. Above black, with a white band down the back ; two 

 white stripes on the side cf the head ; the lower of opposite sides always separated ; 

 the upper sometimes confluent on the nape ; two stripes of black on the side of the 

 head, tlio lower not running into the forehead ; beneath white ; wing much spotted 

 with white , the larger coverts with two series each ; tertiaries or inner secondaries 

 all banded witli white ; two outer tail feathers white, with two bands of black at the 

 end, third white at tip and externally. Male, with red terminating the white feathers 

 on the nape ; legs and feet bluish-gray: claws light-blue tipped with black; iris 

 brown ; bill blackish. 



Length, about 6^ inches ; wing, 3f. 



Hccb. — Nortliern and eastern North America, from British Columbia and the 

 eastern edge of the Plains northward and eastward. 



This indefatigable little insect- hunter, the smallest of all our Wood- 

 peckers, is a common resident in Pennsylvania. The timid disposition 

 so frequently noticed in the preceding species is rarely, if ever, shown 

 by the Downy Woodpeckers, which, at all seasons, are found frequent- 

 ing our shade and fruit trees, and not unfrequently these little feath- 

 ered carpenters may be observed excavating nesting places in trees 

 close to the habitations of man. 



Food. 

 Downy Woodpeckers subsist chiefly on various forms of insects, and 

 when this food becomes scarce they feed oftentimes on the seeds of 

 grasses and some few other plants ; also, small fruits, such as wild 

 grapes, cedar berries, etc. In the winter months I have seen these 

 Woodpeckers, also Tufted Titmice and White-bellied Nuthatches feed 

 with apparent relish on pieces of fat beef and pork, which had been 

 suspended in trees or nailed to grape-arbors for their benefit. The 



