42 DOWNY WOODPECKER. 



as it is only during the months of September, October, and No- 

 vember, that Woodpeckers are seen so indefatigably engaged 

 in orchards, probing every crack and crevice, boring through 

 the bark, and, what is worth remarking, chiefly on the south 

 and south-west sides of the tree, for the eggs and larvae depo- 

 sited there, by the countless swarms of summer insects. These, 

 if suffered to remain, would prey upon the very vitals, if I may 

 so express it, of the tree, and in the succeeding summer, give 

 birth to myriads more of their race, equally destructive. 



Here then is a whole species, I may say genus, of birds, which 

 Providence seems to have formed for the protection of our fruit 

 and forest trees, from the ravages of vermin; which every day 

 destroy millions of those noxious insects, that would otherwise 

 blast the hopes of the husbandman; and which even promote 

 the fertility of the tree; and, in return, are proscribed by those 

 who ought to have been their protectors; and incitements and 

 rewards held out for their destruction ! Let us examine better 

 into the operations of nature, and many of our mistaken opi- 

 nions, and groundless prejudices, will be abandoned for more 

 just, enlarged, and humane, modes of thinking. 



The length of the Downy Woodpecker is six inches and three 

 quarters, and its extent twelve inches; crown black; hind-head 

 deep scarlet; stripe over the eye white; nostrils thickly covered 

 with recumbent hairs, or small feathers, of a cream colour: 

 these, as in the preceding species, are thick and bushy, as if de- 

 signed to preserve the forehead from injury during the violent 

 action of digging; the back is black, and divided by a lateral 

 strip of white, loose, downy, unwebbed feathers; wings black, 

 spotted with white; tail-coverts, rump, and four middle feathers 

 of the tail, black; the other three on each side white, crossed 

 with touches of black; whole under parts, as well as the sides 

 of the neck, white; the latter marked with a streak of black, 

 proceeding from the lower mandible, exactly as in the Hairy 

 Woodpecker; legs and feet bluish green; claws light blue, tipt 

 with black; tongue formed like that of the preceding species, 

 horny towards the tip, where for one-eighth of an inch it is 



