70 Bird Studies. 



This is the smallest of our Woodpeckers in Northeastern North 



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



n \A7 H ^^^ black and white. There is a clear, broad stripe of 



°'"J7-u.°° ' white down the" centre of the back and numerous white 



Dryobates pubescens spots on the wlng fcathers, also a white stripe above and 



medianus (Swains.). ^^^ 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 you.ng 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. 1 This is a resident bird throughout the 



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 numbei; about three quarters of an inch long and five 



eigliths of an inch in their other diameter. f 



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



distinctions from its more northern congener are its smaller average size 



and its brownish white breast. Recent investigation shows 



Southern Downy ^j^^t this was the form described by Linnaeus and it is so 



T^ u »°° i*^^ ^^'- ^ree^arded by the authorities on nomenclature. It seems 



Dryobates pubescens (Linn.). .G ^ J 



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 arid Gulf States from South Carolina to Florida 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 very different, yet intergrade completely. The one 



Screech Owl. extreme of color is bright tawny red, and the other silvery 



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 are the 

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



