138 WOODPECKERS. 



livered so quickly that liis head becomes a series of mazy 



heads. 



Watch the Downy Woodpecker, our commonest 



species, while he is engaged in this surprising perform- 



^ -nr J 1 ance. How he seems to eniov it ! His 

 Downy Woodpecker, _ J ^ 



Dryohates puhescens wliolc appearance is martial and deii- 

 medianns. aut. It is his challenge to the Wood- 

 pecker world. After each roll he looks 

 proudly about him and perhaps utters his call-note, a 

 sharp peeli^ peeli^ which suggests the sound produced by 

 a marble cutter's chisel. More rarely this call is pro- 

 longed into a connected series, when one can readily 

 imagine that the quarrier has dropped his tool. 



The Downy is a hardy bird and is with us throughout 

 the year. In the winter he forms a partnership with the 

 Chickadee and JSTuthatch, and if the good this trio does 

 could be expressed in figures, these neglected friends of 

 ours might receive some small part of the credit due 

 them. Who can estimate the enormous numljers of in- 

 sects' eggs and larvse which these patient explorers of 

 trunk and twig destroy ? 



The Downy, as well as some other Woodpeckers, be- 

 lieves in the comfort of a home. He will not pass cold, 

 wintry nights clinging to the leeward side of a tree when 

 by the use of his chisel-bill he can hollow a snug chamber 

 in its heart. So, in the fall, we may sometimes find him 

 preparing his winter quarters. His nest is constructed 

 in the same manner, and his eggs, like those of all Wood- 

 peckers, are glossy white. 



The Hairy Woodpecker, the Downy's big cousin, is 



not quite so connnon as his smaller 



Hairy Woodpecker, j.gij^t|^.g Tj^e two birds are nearly alike 



Dryohates inllosus. -. ^.^ i . ,i i 



in color, and difl^er only m the mark- 

 ings of the outer tail-feathers. In the Downy these are 

 white, barred with black; in the Hairy, white without 



