VII 



PERSONA NON GRATA 



We shall not attempt to deny that Downy 

 has an unprincipled relative. While it is no dis- 

 credit, it is a great misfortune to Downy, who is 

 often murdered merely because he looks a little, 

 a very little, like this disreputable cousin of his. 

 The real offender is the sapsucker, that musical 

 genius of whom we have already spoken. 



The popular belief is that every woodpecker is 

 a sapsucker, and that every hole he digs in a 

 tree is an injury to the tree. We have seen that 

 every hole Downy digs is a benefit, and now we 

 wish to learn why it is that the sapsucker's work 

 is any more injurious than other woodpeckers' 

 holes ; how we are to recognize the sapsucker's 

 work ; and how much damage he does. We will 

 do what the scientists often do, — examine the 

 bird's work and make it tell us the story. There 

 is no danger of hurting the sapsucker's reputa- 

 tion. The farmer could have no worse opinion 

 of him ; and, though the case has been appealed 

 to the higher courts of science more than once, 



