SPECIES 7. PIC US PUB ESC ENS. 

 DOWNY WOODPECKER. 



[Plate IX. Fig. 4.] 



Picus pubescens, LINN. Syst. i, 175, 15. GMEL. Syst. i, 435. 

 Petit Pic variede Virginie, BuFFON,vn,76. Smallest Wood- 

 pecker, CATESB. i, 21. Arct. Zool. ii,JVo. 165. Little Wood- 

 pecker, LATH. Syn. n, 573, 19. Id. Sup. 109.* PEALE'S Museum, 

 JVo. 1986. 



THIS is the smallest of our Woodpeckers, and so exactly re- 

 sembles the former in its tints and markings, and in almost 

 every thing, except its diminutive size, that I wonder how it 

 passed through the count de Buffon's hands, without being 

 branded as "a spurious race, degenerated by the influence of 

 food, climate, or some unknown cause." But though it has 

 escaped this infamy, charges of a much more heinous nature 

 have been brought against it, not only by the writer above men- 

 tioned, but by the whole venerable body of zoologists in Eu- 

 rope, who have treated of its history, viz. that it is almost con- 

 stantly boring and digging into apple-trees; and that it is the 

 most destructive of its whole genus to the orchards. The first 

 part of this charge I shall not pretend to deny; how far the other 

 is founded in truth, will appear in the sequel. Like the two 

 former species, it remains with us the whole year. About the 

 middle of May, the male and female look out for a suitable 

 place for the reception of their eggs and young. An apple, pear 

 or cherry tree, often in the near neighbourhood of the farm- 

 house, is generally pitched upon for this purpose. The tree is 

 minutely reconnoitred for several days, previous to the opera- 

 tion, and the work is first begun by the male, who cuts out a 

 hole in the solid wood, as circular as if described with a pair of 



