162 
PICUS PUBESCENS. 
45. FICUS PUFESCENS, UNNJEUS DOWNY WOODPECKER. 
WILSON, PLATE IX. FIG. IV. 5IALE. . — EDINBURGH COLLEGE 
SIKSEUM. 
This is the smallest of our ivoodpeekers, and s® 
exactly resembles the former in its tints anil marking^’ 
and in almost every thing excqit its diminutive si*‘’> 
that I wonder how it passed through the Count de 
Buffon’s hands witliont being branded as a “ spuriou* 
race, degenerated by the intluencc of food, climate, o!" 
some unknown cause.” But, though it has escap®^ 
this infamy, charges of a innch more heinous natut 
have been brought against it, not only by the write 
above mentioned, but by the w hole venerable body e 
zoologists in Europe, who have treated of its historj'i 
viz. that it is almost constantly boring cud digging iot® 
apple-trees; and that it is the most destructive of 
whole genua to the orchards. The first part ol t’O’ 
charge 1 shall not pretend to deny ; how far the otb*^^ 
is founded in truth will appear in the sequel. 
the two former species, it remains w-ith us the 
year. About the middle of May, the male and feins* 
look out for a suitable place for the reception of the*’^ 
eggs and young. An apple, jiear, or cherry-tree, otte" 
in the near neighbourhood of the farm-house, is geO?' 
rally jiitched upon for this purpose. The tree 
minutely reconnoitred for several days previous to tb 
operation, and the work is first begun by the niaw' 
who cuts out a hole in the solid wood as circulaE a* 
if described witli a pair of compasses. He is occasioj’' 
ally relieved by tlic female, both parties working «'it 
the most indefatigable diligence. The direction of 1“ 
hole, if made in the body of the tree, is generally do’J' ' 
wards, by an angle of thirty or forty degrees, for 
distance of six or eight inches, and then straight don 
for ten or tw'clvc more ; within roomy, capacious, a' 
as smooth as if polished by the cabinetmaker ; but 
entrance is judiciously left just so large as to admit t^^ 
bodies of the owners. During this labour, they reg 
