Plate LVI. 
PICUS PUBESCE/JS— Downy Woodpecker. 
The Downy Woodpecker is a common resident, ancl is our smallest representative of its family. 
It is a very conspicuous and sociable bird, and is generally known by the name “ Sapsucker.” 
The nest is constructed early in May, and the young are hatched about the 1st of June. A second 
set of eggs is frequently laid in July. 
LOCALITY : 
The home of the Sapsucker is always placed in dead wood, either a limb or trunk of a tree, a 
fence-post, a stump, or some such place. - It is not uncommon to find it nesting in a fence-post along a 
country road, in an orchard-tree about a farm-house, or even in a shade tree in a large city. But of all 
places the bank of a stream is preferred. Here the willow stumps offer the most desirable sites, and are 
eagerly sought for. Along the Scioto river a dozen or more nests may be found to every mile of the 
shore, along that part of the stream where willows abound. In the upland country, other trees about 
the outskirts of timber-laud, or even deep in the densest woods are occupied. 
POSITION : 
The nest is almost invariably in a perpendicular or slightly inclined piece of timber, at a distance 
from the ground, varying in different instances from two to forty feet. The usual height is about ten 
feet. 
MATERIALS : 
As with other Woodpeckers the nest consists simply of an excavation in dead and generally semi- 
decayed wood. The opening is round, or almost round, and measures about one and three-sixteenths 
inches in diameter. It is projected nearly or quite at right angles to the surface of the timber, and 
enters a variable distance, according to the diameter of the wood and the fancy of the builders. Generally 
after a hole is cut about an inch and a half deep, during which distance there is but little change made 
in its diameter, a turn is made downward, and the cavity enlarged as it progresses, until it becomes 
about seven inches deep and three and one-fourth wide. The excavation is seldom round, being half an 
inch or more in one diameter than- another, and sometimes it is a foot or more in depth. Instead of 
extending parallel with the side of the timber in which it is cut, it almost invariably makes an angle 
with it, as shown in the illustration. 
The labor of making a nest varies from two to five days, according to circumstances, and is shared 
by male and female alike. The chips are permitted to fall to the ground, and may be found scattered 
beneath the site, if it is high up, or piled up beneath, if it is low down. At the bottom of the cavity 
a layer about three-quarters of an inch in depth, of fine, soft chips, is left for a bed for the eggs and 
young. 
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