*. 



LTHOUGH the eagle has the emblematic 

 place of honor in the United States, the 

 downy woodpecker is distinguished as the most 

 useful bird citizen. Of the eight hundred and 

 three kinds of birds in North America, his services 

 are most helpful to man. He destroys destruct- 

 ive forest insects. Long ago Nature selected 

 the woodpecker to be the chief caretaker the 

 physician and surgeon of the tree world. 

 This is a stupendous task. Forests are extens- 

 ive and are formed of hundreds of species of 

 trees. The American woodpeckers have the 

 supervision of uncounted acres that are forested 

 with more than six hundred kinds of trees. 



With the exception of the California big tree, 

 each tree species is preyed upon by scores, and 

 many species by hundreds, of injurious and 

 deadly insects. Five hundred kinds of insects 



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