266 GLEANINGS FROM NATURE. 



shade tree in the very heart of the city, where, though 



surrounded by a bedlam of noises, he pecks away as 

 industriously and contentedly as he does when in the 

 depths of the forest. But they frequent the city much 

 more seldom now than when that despised alien, the 

 ubiquitous and aggressive English sparrow, was a 

 stranger to our land. 



The downy is known by several other common 

 names; chief among which are the "little spotted 



woodpecker,*' and the 

 " little sapsucker." The 

 latter name is, how- 

 ever^ a misnomer, as 

 neither he nor the hairy 

 ever bore into trees for 

 the purpose of gather- 

 ing sap as does their 



Fig. 75 Head of Downy Woodpecker. cOUsill, the yellow-bel- 



lied woodpecker, Sphyrapicus varius (L.). The last 

 named bird is a migrant, seen here only in spring and 

 fall, and the holes he bores are small, shallow and 

 close together, in regular circles about the- tree ; while 

 those made by the downy and hairy in search of 

 insect food are scattered irregularly over the surface 

 of the limb or trunk. 



On a recent October morn I watched a " downy " 

 carving with his strong, chisel-shaped bill a cavity in 

 a dead snag, probably one which he intended using 

 as a winter shelter. Clinging to the edge of the hole, 

 he would reach in until only his tail was visible, give 

 three or four vigorous pecks, then draw forth his body 

 and head and " spit out," or rather cast aside the frag- 



