346 
THE CANADIAN NATURALIST 
the house;, P^yii^g particular attentions to a sheep- skin which, 
having been recently taken off, was spread on the fence close 
to the house to dry. They hopped upon it, close up to the 
window, where I was looking at them, tugging at the bits of 
fat which remained on the skin, large pieces of which they 
tore off, and swallowed. I then observed that the white on 
the crown, chin, throat, &c. is of the purest and brightest tint, 
and not a dirty, brownish white," as described by Wilson. 
These birds, from their carnivorous habits, are here called by 
the common people Carrion-birds in Newfoundland, it is 
known as " the Jay." But the wind is rising and the 
clouds indicate an approaching storm : we had better re- 
turn. 
C, — There is a little bird hopping about the trunks and 
branches of those willows : he has all the appearance and 
manners of the woodpeckers. I presume it must be the 
little Downy Woodpecker f Picus Pubescens J. 
F. — Yes : it is a pigmy species, scarcely larger than a 
warbler ; a woodpecker in miniature, yet in every respect 
a very complete representative of his tribe. He very strongly 
resembles his brother, the Hairy Woodpecker f P. Villosus ) 
in everything but size : the present is not so common as 
that species, but has received in common with it the ridicu- 
lous name of Sapsucker," a name which is undeservedly, 
slanderously, affixed to these useful birds, throughout the 
whole of the United States, from Canada to the Gulf of 
Mexico. That they bore our apple trees is undoubtedly 
true ; but it is for the purpose of dislodging the hidden mag- 
got, which is rioting unseen on the juices of the tree ; and it 
is as just to accuse the woodpecker of the injury which the 
tree sustains, as to accuse the surgeon who probes the wound 
for the purpose of extracting the assassin's ball, of inflicting 
tl\e wound, and of being himself the assassin. But preju- 
