The Downy Woodpeckers 
nuts or to hang out a bit of suet in winter. In the South no such pre¬ 
cautions are necessary. A fundamental consideration, however, is the 
provision of suitable nesting sites. Experiment has shown that the 
Downy’s forage range during the breeding season is not extensive. The 
clamoring young are fed by the product of nearby trees (fed, it may be, 
a thousand insects a day). Their services, therefore, must be secured in 
the orchard; and to this end the orchardist must consent to leave certain 
dead branches—a foot or so at the base of the larger ones will do—for a 
nesting site. Dead wood, of course, invites insects; but the most serious 
and frequent mistake which our California orchardists make is to trim 
out all the dead wood from the fruit trees. A pair of Willow Woodpeckers, 
or of Slender-billed Nuthatches, will clean out all the dangerous pests 
from a dead tree, and sixteen live ones to boot. 
It is worth while, too, from almost any standpoint, to cultivate the 
friendship of a pair of these birds. Their abounding good cheer, as 
expressed in vigorous pink notes and in a merry rolling cry, as well as 
their untiring industry, may well be an inspiration to any farmer boy. 
As for the bird-man, he never feels quite at home in the river grove until 
this capable elf has come around to say “howdy,” or to shrewdly size up 
the invader. Of course the pretense that that particular tree right over 
your head needs inspection at that particular moment, tap-tap , tap-tap , 
is as hollow as the accidental meeting of lovers on the way home from 
school,—and for something the same reason, if we deserve our luck. 
It is at times difficult to distinguish, in the case of the pink notes 
and the longer rattling call, between the voices of this bird and the 
Cabanis; but the notes of the smaller bird are usually much less in volume 
and strength, and have a rather more nasal quality. All woodpeckers 
have, also, a sort of signal system, or Morse code, consisting of sundry 
tattoos on resonant wood. These calls are used principally, or exclu¬ 
sively, during the mating season, and consist, in the case of the Willow, 
of six or seven taps in regular and moderate succession. The birds have 
favorite places for the production of these sounds; and it is probable that 
birds are able to distinguish their calling mates by the timbre of the 
smitten wood, as well as by some subtle variation of tempo which escapes 
unfamiliar ears. 
Willow Woodpeckers, in the wild, place their nests at considerable 
heights in deciduous trees, and those, if possible, among thick growths on 
moist ground. Both sexes assist in excavation, as in incubation. Par¬ 
tially decayed wood is selected, and an opening made about an inch and a 
quarter in diameter. After driving straight in for an inch or two, the 
passage turns down and widens two or three diameters. At a depth of a 
foot or so the crystal white eggs are deposited on a neat bed of fine chips. 
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