The Downy Woodpecker 219 



They form a merry company, these little forest-rangers, and never 

 lack for music as they march. The shrill piping peto, peto, peto, of the 

 Titmouse mingles with the tenor-drum tap, tap of Downy 's bill on the 

 bark, while ever and again the Chickadee, a mere bundle of nerves 

 and fluffy feathers, "merrily sings his chick-a-dec-dee." 



Not merely for company do these birds thus associate, but for 

 mutual protection as well. Twenty pairs of sharp eyes are more likely 

 to see an enemy approaching than is a single pair, and it is well for a 

 small bird to keep a sharp lookout at this season, for 

 it is more readily seen by a hawk in a leafless, wintry Protection 

 wood than if it were within a shady summer forest. 



Like all other woodpeckers, Downy 's mate lays white eggs. These 

 usually number four or five, and are placed on a soft bed of fine chips 

 at the bottom of a hole, which both parents have helped to dig, usually 

 in the under side of a decayed limb of the tree. Nature is not prone 

 to use her coloring-matter on eggs which, like the woodpeckers', are 

 hid away in dark holes in trees. When the little ones are hatched 

 Downy and his mate are kept very busy for a long time bringing them 

 good things to eat, for the little woodpeckers have great appetites, which 

 seem never to be satisfied. 



Downy is not only a very neighborly little fellow in his social 

 relations with other wild birds fortunate enough to make his acquaint- 

 ance, but he also renders them a very great service in providing many 

 homes which they can use. He and his mate usually dig out a new nest 

 every year, and, as a rule, he makes a new hole for 

 roosting purposes every winter. As a result of this, Downy's 



many unused Downy Woodpecker's nests are scattered Home 



about in all our orchards, groves, and woodlands, like empty houses. 



Some little birds like the protection afforded by a hollow in a tree, 

 when in spring they get ready to build their nests, and these old 

 abandoned Downy nests are just exactly what they are looking for. I 

 remember finding a nest of one of these little woodpeckers in a small 

 dead birch-stump standing near a brook by the edge of a pasture. The 

 nest was only about five feet from the ground, and although many cattle 

 passed that way each day, and the farmer's house-cat sometimes wand- 

 ered along the stream, the little white eggs were hatched and the young 

 reared in safety. A year later I chanced again to pass that way. Great 

 was my delight to find that, although the Downies had moved on to 

 another place, their old home contained six as wide-awake little birds 

 as anyone could wish to meet with on a bright spring morning. 

 Scarcely had I made the discovery when their mother appeared, and lo! 

 it was our dainty friend the Chickadee. She and her 

 mate had filled the hole half full of various kinds of Tenants 



soft material, and evidently were as proud of their 

 snug home as if they had dug it out with their own weak little bills. 



( hie Sunday morning not long ago I heard a House Wren singing. 

 II is heart was full of joy. It was clear that he had won his mate for 



