VI 



FRIEND DOWNY 



No better little bird comes to our orchards 

 than our friend the downy woodpecker. He is 

 the smallest and one of the most sociable of our 

 woodpeckers, — a little, spotted, black-and-white 

 fellow, precisely like his larger cousin the hairy, 

 except in having the outer tail-feathers barred 

 instead of plain. Nearly everything that can be 

 said of one is equally true of the other on a 

 smaller scale. They look alike, they act alike, 

 and their nests and eggs are alike in everything 

 but size. 



Downy is the most industrious of birds. He 

 is seldom idle and never in mischief. As he 

 does not fear men, but likes to live in orchards 

 and in the neighborhood of fields, he is a good 

 friend to us. On the farm he installs himself 

 as Inspector of Apple-trees. It is an old and an 

 honorable profession among birds. The pay is 

 small, consisting only of what can be picked up, 

 but, as cultivated trees are so infested with insects 

 that food is always plentiful, and as they have 



