WOODPECKERS. 115 
livered so quickly that his head becomes a series of mazy 
heads. 
Watch the Downy Woodpecker, our commonest 
species, while he is engaged in this surprising perform- 
pecker, ®2Cce. How he seems to enjoy it! His 
Soaeesenn whole appearance is martial and defi- 
wi. weet ant. It is his challenge to the Wood- 
* pecker world. After each roll he looks 
proudly about him and perhaps utters his call-note, a 
sharp peek, peek, which suggests the sound produced by 
a marble cutter’s chisel. More rarely this call is pro- 
longed into a connected series, when one can readily 
imagine that the quarrier has dropped his tool. 
The Downy is a hardy bird and is with us throughout 
the year. In the winter he forms a partnership with the 
Chickadee and Nuthatch, and if the good this trio does 
could be expressed in figures, these neglected friends of 
ours might receive some small part of the credit due 
them. Who can estimate the enormous numbers of in- 
sects’ eggs and larve which these patient explorers of 
trunk and twig destroy ? 
The Downy, as well as some other Woodpeckers, be- 
lieves in the comfort of a home. He will not pass cold, 
wintry nights clinging to the leeward side of a tree when 
by the use of his chisel-bill he can hollow a snug chamber 
in its heart. So, in the fall, we may sometimes find him 
preparing his winter quarters. His nest is constructed 
in the same manner, and his eggs, like those of all Wood- 
peckers, are glossy white. 
The Hairy Woodpecker, the Downy’s big cousin, is 
may W not quite so common as his = 
Devos Ae Bg relative. The two birds are nearly alike 
oor in color, and differ only in the mark- 
ings of the outer tail-feathers. In the Downy these are 
white, barred with black; in the Hairy, white without 
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