/o Bird Studies. 



This is the smallest of our Woodpeckers in Northeastern North 



America, being generally less ihan seven inches long. Its prevailing colors 



are black and white. There is a clear, broad stripe of 



oecker white do\vn the centre of the back and numerous white 



oryobates pubcscens spots on the wing feathers, also a white stripe above and 



one below the eye. In the adult female the white stripes 



above the eye are interrupted from joining by a narrow stripe of black at the 



back of the head. In the adult male a bright scarlet band connects these 



stripes. In young birds, the whole top of the head shows scarlet feathers 



mixed with black. The middle tail feathers are black and the other ones 



white with black bars crossing them. This is a resident bird throughout the 



O c"* 



middle and northern parts of the Eastern United States and northward. It 

 breeds in holes, generally excavated in some dead limb. The eggs are pure 

 white, three to six in number, about three quarters of an inch long and five 

 eighths of an inch in their other diameter. 



This is the form occupying our more southern regions, and its chief 

 distinctions from its more northern convener are its smaller average size 



^ O 



and its brownish white breast. Recent investigation shows 

 Southern Downy ^t t h; s was t jj e f orm described by Linnaeus and it is so 



DryobatufcL s e nnA re g arded b >' the authorities on nomenclature. It seems 

 hardly necessary to say that in general habits it closely 

 resembles its more northern representative, though as I have seen it in 

 Florida it is more of a wood than a house bird. 



The Southern Downy Woodpecker is the geographical race, occupying 

 the South Atlantic and Gulf States from South Carolina to Flgrida and 

 Texas. 



There are two distinct color phases of this bird that do not correlate 



with age, sex, or the season of the year, and which, though in their extremes 



are verv different, vet interorade completelv. The one 



O i- s~\ i 



reecn Owl - extreme of color is bright tawnv red. and the other silverv 



Megascops asio (Linn.}. 



gray, darker on the upper parts. These colors are on a 

 white or grayish ground. The length of the bird varies from nine to ten 

 inches. Small owls, they have pronounced horns or ear tufts, and arc the 

 only owls of this size ni the region under consideration that are distinguished 



