346 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. 



the house, paying particular attentions to a sheep- skin which, 

 having been recently taken off, was spread on the fence close 

 to the house to dry. They hopped upon it, close up to the 

 window, where I was looking at them, tugging at the bits of 

 fat which remained on the skin, large pieces of which they 

 tore off, and swallowed. I then observed that the white on 

 the crown, chin, throat, &c. is of the purest and brightest tint, 

 and not "a dirty, brownish white," as described by Wilson. 

 These birds, from their carnivorous habits, are here called by 

 the common people ** Carrion-birds ;" in Newfoundland, it is 

 known as " the Jay." But the wind is rising and the 

 clouds indicate an approaching storm : we had better re- 

 turn. 



C — There is a little bird hopping about the trunks and 

 branches of those willows : he has all the appearance and 

 manners of the woodpeckers. I presume it must be the 

 little Downy Woodpecker (Picus PubescensJ. 



F. — Yes : it is a pigmy species, scarcely larger than a 

 warbler; a woodpecker in miniature, yet in every respect 

 a very complete representative of his tribe. He very strongly 

 resembles his brother, the Hairy Woodpecker CP. Villosus) 

 in everything but size : the present is not so common as 

 th^t species, but has received in common with it the ridicu- 

 lous name of " Sapsucker," a name which is undeservedly, 

 slanderously, affixed to these useful birds, throughout the 

 whole of the United States, from Canada to the Gulf of 

 Mexico. That they bore our apple trees is imdoubtedly 

 true ; but it is for the purpose of dislodging the hidden mag- 

 got, which is rioting unseen on the juices of the tree ; and it 

 is as just to accuse the woodpecker of the injury which the 

 tree sustains, as to accuse the surgeon who probes the wound 

 for the purpose of extracting the assassin's ball, of inflicting 

 the wound, and of being himself the assassin. But preju- 



