822 LAND-BIRDS AND GAME-BIRDS 
mon little spotted or Downy Woodpecker. Audubon has repre- 
sented these birds in no less than six assumed species, so great 
is the variation in size, and in the colors of the young. He 
even undertook to point out differences in manner and voice, 
between those of New Hampshire and those of Maine. Here 
. his imagination almost undoubtedly led him astray, so easy is 
it for man to deceive himself by seeing, as he thinks, what he 
is determined to see. 
(d). The Hairy Woodpeckers have both a loud, shrill ery, 
not unlike that of the “Flicker,” and a sharp chuck, which re- 
sembles the characteristic note of the next species. Both of 
these notes, however, are somewhat peculiar, and need not 
often be confused with those of other species. 
(B) pusrscens. Downy Woodpecker. 
(A common summer-resident throughout New England, but 
less abundant in winter.) 
(a). About 63 inches.long. Outer tail-feathers barred with 
black. Otherwise like P. villosus (A). 
(v). The nest is built in various trees, among which the 
apple-trees, birches, and poplars, are frequently selected. It 
has occasionally been found in a post. The entrance is two 
jnches or less in diameter, whereas that of the “ Flicker’s” 
nest is.usually from two to five inches high. The eggs, of 
which four or five are usually laid near Boston in the fourth 
week of May, measure ‘80 X ‘60 of an inch, or less. : 
(c). The Downy Woodpeckers, like their near relations the 
‘Hairy Woodpeckers, are resident throughout the wooded por- 
tions of eastern North America, in many places being common 
-and well-known, as is the case in Massachusetts, where, how- 
-ever, they are less numerous in winter. In autumn they may 
-be seem followed by titmice, creepers, nuthatches, and “wrens,” 
whose society they seem to enjoy, though not themselves gre- 
garious. They are not only sociable, but are very familiar 
towards man, showing no alarm at his approach, and preferring 
orchards, roadsides, and woods about houses or barns, to the 
forests, for which many of their relations have a marked fond- 
