153 



DOWNY WOODPECKER. 

 PICUS PUBESCENS. 

 [Plate IX.— Fig. 4.] 



Picus pubescens^ Linn. Syst. I, 175, 15. — Gmel. Syst, I, 435. — Petit Pic varie de Firginie, 

 BuFFON VII, 76. — Smallest Woodpecker^ Catesb. I, 21. — Arct. Zool. II, No. 163.— 

 Little Woodpecker, Lath. Syn. 11, 573, 19. Id. Sup. 106. — Pe ale's Museum, No. 1986. 



THIS is the smallest of our Woodpeckers, and so exactly re- 

 sembles the former in its tints and markings, and in almost every- 

 thing except its diminutive size^ that I wonder how it passed thro 

 the count de Buffon^s hands without being branded as a spurious 

 race, degenerated by the influence of food, climate, or some un- 

 known cause/^ But tho it has escaped this infamy, charges of a 

 much more heinous nature have been brought against it^ not only 

 by the writer above mentioned, but by the whole venerable body 

 of zoologists in Europe, who have treated of its history, viz, that it 

 is almost constantly boring and digging into apple trees ; and that 

 it is the most destructive of its whole genus to the orchards. The 

 first part of this charge I shall not pretend to deny ; how far the 

 other is founded in truth will appear in the sequel. Like the two 

 former species it remams with us the whole year. About the 

 middle of May the male and female look out for a suitable place 

 for the reception of their eggs and young. An apple, pear or cherry 

 tree, often in the near neighbourhood of the farm-house, is gene- 

 rally pitched upon for this purpose. The tree is minutely recon- 

 noitered for several days previous to the operation, and the work 

 is first begun by the male, who cuts out a hole in the solid wood 

 as circular as if described with a pair of compasses. He is occa- 

 sionally relieved by the female, both parties working with the most 



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