The Hairy and Downy Woodpeckers 129 



Not all of the hammering and drillmg /however, is done to secure 

 ^ ^ food. In some dead branch, stub, or dying part of a living tree, 



where the wood is sufficiently decayed to make excavation easy, 

 the Woodpecker begins nesting operations, seldom choosing a natural cavity, 

 preferring to drill a fresh hole from start to finish. To quote John Burroughs: 

 "The bird goes in horizontally for a few inches, making a hole perfectly 

 round and smooth and adapted to his size, then turns downward, gradually 

 enlarging the hole, as he proceeds, to the depth of ten, fifteen, twenty inches, 

 according to the softness of the tree and the urgency of the mother bird to 

 deposit her eggs. While excavating, male and female work alternately. After 

 one has been engaged fifteen or twenty minutes, drilling and carrying out 

 chips, it ascends to an upper limb, utters a loud call or two; when its mate soon 

 appears, and, alighting near it on the branch, the pair chatter and caress a 

 moment, then the fresh one enters the cavity and the other flies away." A 

 layer of fine chips is left on the bottom of this skilfully fashioned nest, upon 

 which usually four to six glossy white eggs are laid. 



May is the month when the Downy and Hairy generally nest; but 

 April, June, or even July sometimes finds an early or late pair rearing their 

 young. In the North, only one brood is raised during a season ; but it is not 

 uncommon in the South for one brood to be raised in May and a second in 

 August. 



Both parents take turns incubating the eggs. Just how they find their way 

 about the dark, smoothly polished nest-hole, to feed the naked young in proper 

 order and to keep them clean, must be guessed at. It is known that they 

 pump pre-digested food into the little ones' stomachs by the process of regur- 

 gitation. As the nestlings grow old enough to leave the nest, they climb up to 

 the edge of the hole, whence first one and then another greedy bill pops out 

 to greet the returning parent. 



Scientific investigation, shows that 74 per cent of the Downy's 

 Food food and 68 per cent of the Hairy's is made up of insects. Chief 



among these are the highly injurious wood-borers, gipsy-moth 

 pupae, and many kinds of hairy caterpillars. While the Downy relishes the 

 destructive codling-moth and pine weevil, the Hairy is a foe to the huge 

 Cecropia moth. Both Woodpeckers eat bark beetles, ants and plant-lice, but 

 the Hairy relishes the beetles most, while the Downy eats a larger number of 

 the dangerous ants and aphides. In localities where grasshoppers become a 

 pest, both the Downy and Hairy will devour the eggs and adults. An excep- 

 tionally beneficial practice is their habit of ridding a tree thoroughly of insect 

 pests before leaving it. 



The vegetable matter preferred by these Woodpeckers comes mostly from 

 swampy thickets and uncultivated shrubs. A few wild berries and seeds, 

 occasionally beechnuts, a gall, or in the spring a few flower buds or petals, 

 make up this part of their diet. A frozen apple in winter, or a wormy one in 



