THE OOLOGIST. 



117 



slightly in size and coloration but all 

 unmistakably of the same species, 

 though their valuations were at tirst 

 confusing. 



Even the smallest of these various 

 Hairys were large compared with some 

 of their neighbors, the little Downy 

 Woodpeckers, Picus pubescens, the 

 smallest and funniest of the ti'ibe. Too 

 small and delicate looking for hard 

 work on seasoned wood they still toiled 

 away, but in such an inimitably airy 

 manner that it did not seem work. 

 They appeared to be doing it for fun, 

 perhaps as a burlesque on the fiierce 

 earnestness of their overgrown rela- 

 tives. They were fearless little fellows 

 and if unmolested would have built 

 right beside the farmer's door, but 

 strange to say the purpose of their 

 daily labor has been misconstrued and 

 after working hard to rid orchards of 

 noxious insects they are ruthlessly shot 

 on an unfounded charge of sucking the 

 sap of trees. 



I could never learn to distinguish the 

 nest and eggs of the Downy from those 

 of the Hairy Woodpecker except by the 

 difference in size, those of the Downy 

 being much the smaller. Sometimes I 

 have noticed the Downies using the 

 nests of the previous year over again, 

 and while satisfied with some old nest 

 boring new nest holes for the sake of 

 exercise. I think the Hairy Wood- 

 peckers must have been a little more 

 fastidious in their tastes for none of 

 these in my circle of acquaintances ever 

 used the same nest hole twice. 



On one occasion I found a pair of 

 Downies nesting very late in the season 

 ^nd concluded that some accident must 

 have befallen their nest or brood and 

 that they were trying to make good the 

 loss. Afterwards I found another nest 

 with fresh eggs in a hole where a brood 

 had been reared weeks before, and I 

 saw that some of my small Downy 

 friends were so industi'ious that they 

 were departing from the custom usual- 



ly observed by their race in this local- 

 ity and were rearing two broods in one 

 season. 



It always appeared to me to be the 

 correct and natural thing for all the 

 individuals of a species to migrate with 

 the change of the seasons, or for all of 

 them to stay with us the year round. 

 It seemed, however, that many birds 

 could not accept this theory. Among 

 certain species there are numerous in- 

 dividuals of roving tastes even when 

 the migratory instinct is not established 

 as a characteristic of the species. I am 

 pretty sure that I have observed pecul- 

 iarities of this kind among the Yellow- 

 bellied Woodpecker, Sx>hyrapicus var- 

 ius. They are with us the year round 

 and I would never think of calling 

 them migratory birds, but in winter 

 they become extremely rare to grow 

 numerous again about the first of April. 

 About the middle of April they cease 

 their desultary drumming and set to 

 work in earnest digging "foundations"' 

 and preparing their nests. 



Several pairs nested in my favorite 

 grove, but their holes were usually 

 about eighteen inches in depth and it 

 was frequently impossible for me to get 

 a look at their eggs. Such as I did ex- 

 amine were of a pure white color and 

 seemed to be unusually small for the 

 size of the bird, though this is a point 

 on which my judgment is worth but lit- 

 tle. In the nests I examined the num- 

 ber of eggs was almost invariably five. 



I have always received the stories of 

 the Woodpeckers sucking the sap of 

 trees with severe disbelief, and have 

 regarded the man who thought the 

 birds injured his growing timber as on 

 par with the man who thought that 

 snakes milked his cows. Consequently 

 Iwassomewhat discomfitted last spring 

 by finding the nest cavities of two 

 pairs of these reputed sapsuckers ex- 

 cavated deep in the trunks of living 

 trees. Besides their nests, which they 

 were using, they had drilled similar 



