upon caterpillars and other enemies which feast 

 upon their leaves and bloom. He appears most 

 content close to the haunts of man and spends 

 much of his time caring for orchards and clean- 

 ing up the shade trees. One morning in Mis- 

 souri a downy alighted against the base of an 

 apple tree within a few feet of where I was stand- 

 ing. He arrived with an undulating flight and 

 swept in sideways toward the trunk, as though 

 thrown. Spat! he struck. For a moment he 

 stuck motionless, then he began to sidle round 

 and up the trunk. Every now and then he 

 tapped with his bill or else stopped to peer into 

 a bark-cavity. He devoured an insect egg- 

 cluster, a spider, and a beetle of some kind be- 

 fore ascending to the first limb. 



Just below the point of a limb's attachment 

 he edged about, giving the tree-trunk a rattling 

 patter of taps with his bill. He was sounding 

 for something. Presently a spot appeared to 

 satisfy him. Adjusting himself, he rained blows 

 with his pick-axe bill upon this, tilting his head 

 and directing the strokes with an apparently 

 automatic action, now and then giving a side 



2OI 



