SPECIES 7. PIC US PUBESCENS. 
DOWNY WOODPECKER. 
[Plate IX. — Fig. 4.] 
Ficus pubescens, Linn. Syst, i, 175, 15. — Gmel. Syst. i, 435. — 
Petit Pic variede Virginie, Buffon, vir, 76. — Smallest Wood- 
pecker, Catesb. I, 21. — Arct. Zool. ii, JVb. 165. — Little Wood- 
pecker, Lath. Syn. ii, 573, 19. Id. Sup. 109. — Peale’s Museum, 
JYo. 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 through the count de Buffon’s hands, without being 
branded as “a spurious race, degenerated by the influence of 
food, climate, or som.e unknown cause.” But though it has 
escaped this infamy, charges of a much more heinous nature 
have been brought against it, not only by the writer above men- 
tioned, but by the whole venerable body of zoologists in Eu- 
rope, who have treated of its history, viz. that it is almost con- 
stantly 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 remains 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 generally pitched upon for this purpose. The tree is 
minutely reconnoitred for several days, previous to the opera- 
tion, 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 
