DOWNY WOODPECKER 



139 



bird also destroys May beetles, plant lice, and ants. 



A single wood-borer will often kill an entire tree, 



and one fifth of the Downy's animal food con- 

 sists of caterpillars, many 

 of which bore into wood and 

 live on stems and leaves. 

 Indeed, the Downy is the 

 most beneficial of all the 

 useful Woodpecker family. 

 Its bill is a good excavating 

 tool, and its barbed tongue 

 also bears witness to its 

 effective search for insects 

 (Fig. 71). 



Downy's song is a thin 

 rattle, his call note a sharp 

 peek-peek, a most grateful 



sound when it breaks the winter still- 

 Seeing the birds about during 



FIG. 70. 

 Wood-bor- 

 ing Larva. 



FIG. 71. 

 Tip of 

 Tongue 

 of Downy 

 Wood- 

 pecker, 

 for spear- 

 ing In- 

 sects and 

 their Lar- 



ness. 



snowstorms, we wonder what becomes 



of them in the still colder nights, but 



the Downy takes good care of himself. 



Doctor Mearns says, in his interesting 



account of the bird's habits : " At night 



he is comfortably housed in a hole, which he 



digs expressly for that purpose. Always ... so 



far as my experience goes, he places the entrance 



to his burrow so as to face the sunny south." 



One little chap whom the Doctor visited one 



night shortly after sunset was " snugly ensconced 



