144 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



special aversion to feminine society, but to his selfish desire to keep all 

 the food in the immediate vicinity for his own consumption — a form of 

 rivalry which is very common among birds and is the rule, at least in the 

 nesting season, with those species which do not travel considerable distances 

 in search of food. 



This species should not be confused with the Sapsucker, for the 

 farmer who permits its destruction is sacrificing one of his best friends. 

 The Downy destroys immense niunbers of bark-boring beetles and their 

 larvae, the cocoons of moths, the larvae of gall insects, ants and wood 

 borers of all kinds. On several occasions I have noted them destroying 

 the cocoons of Cecropia and Prometheus moths. In fall and winter he 

 varies his diet to some extent with nuts and wild fruits, but he never has 

 been found a nuisance by the fruit grower and does not injure trees by 

 tapping them for sap and the inner bark, as he has been accused by mistake 

 for the Sapsucker. 



The nesting hole of the Downy woodpecker is excavated in a stub or 

 a dead limb anywhere in orchards, shade trees and woodlands. I have 

 found them at heights varying from 8 to 50 feet from the ground. The 

 opening is about ij inches in diameter and the excavation from 6 to 8 

 inches in depth. These nesting holes are begun from late in April to the 

 middle of May in different parts of the State, and fresh sets of eggs are 

 found from May 2 to June 10. These are 4 to 6 in number and pure shiny 

 white in color, of a' pinkish tinge when fresh owing to the contents showing 

 through the shell, oval in shape, and measure about .78 by .60 inches. 



Picoides arcticus (Swainson) 

 Arctic Three-toed Woodpecker 



Plate 60 



Picus (Apternus) arcticus Swainson. Fauna Bor. Am. 1831(1832). 2:313 

 Picus arcticus DeKay. Zool. of N. Y. 1844. pt 2, p. 190, fig. 36 

 Picoides arcticus A. 0. U. Check List. Ed. 3. 1910. p., 189. No. 400 

 picoides, Lat., picus, woodpecker, and Gr., elSo?, likeness; arcticus, arctic 



Description. Upper parts black, with steel blue gloss; wing feathers • 

 bar-spotted with white; outer 2 pairs of tail feathers mostly white; white 



