166 
PICUS PUBESCENS. 
what is worth remarkiujj, chiefly on t!ie south and 
southwest sides of the tree, for the eggs and larvi* 
deposited there by the countless swarms of suninic*' 
insects. These, if .suffered to remain, n onld prey upoo 
the very vitals, if 1 may so express it, of the tree, and 
in the sueceeding summer give birth to myriads morn 
of their race, equally destructive. 
Here, then, i.s a whole species, I may say, genus, oi 
birds, n hich Providence seem.s to have formed for th*’ 
protection of our fruit and forest trees from the ravagns 
of vermin, which every day destroy' millions of thosn 
noxious insects that would otherwise blast (he hop«* 
of the husbandman; and nhich even promote the fer* 
tility of the tree ; and, in return, are proscribed by thosn 
who ought to have been their protectors ; and iucitr' 
meuts and reivards held out for their destruction ! I-nJ 
us examine better into the operations of nature, and 
many of onr mist.aken opinions and groundless |ireju' 
dices will be abandoned for more just, enlarged, and 
humane modes of thinking. 
The length of the downy woodpe<;ker is six inchfi® 
and three quarters, and its extent twelve inches; (Ton'll, 
black ; hind head, deep scarlet ; stripe over the 
white ; mjstrils, tliickly covered with recumbent hairs, 
or small feathers, of a cream colour; these, as in 
preceding species, are thick and bushy, as if desigiu.'d t** 
jireserve the forehead from injury during the violen* 
action of digging; the back is black, and divided by 
lateral strip of white, loose, doivny, unwebbed feathers i 
wings, black, spotted with white ; tail-coverts, riiuip, 
and four middle feathers of the tail, black ; the ofb«f 
three on each side, white, crossed with touches of blacb'5 
whole under parts, as well as the sides of the ne('b'> 
white ; the latter marked with a streak of black, P*'*’" 
ceeding from the lower mandible, exactly as in fb® 
hairy woodjiecker ; legs and feet, bluish gia-en ; cla'"'*‘», 
light blue, tipt with black ; tongue, fornuMl like that ot 
the preceiliug specie.s, horny towards the tip, where, f'®’’ 
one-eighth of an inch, it is barbed ; bill, of a bluish hnj'*' 
colour, grooved, and wedge-formed, like most of 
