42 
DOWNY WOODPECKER. 
as it is only during the months of September, October, and No- 
vember, that Woodpeckers are seen so indefatigably engaged 
in orchards, probing every crack and crevice, boring through 
the bark, and, what is worth remarking, chiefly on the south 
and south-west sides of the tree, for the eggs and larvae depo- 
sited there, by the countless swarms of summer insects. These, 
if suffered to remain, would prey upon the very vitals, if I may 
so express it, of the tree, and in the succeeding summer, give 
birth to myriads more of their race, equally destructive. 
Here then is a whole species, I may say genus, of birds, which 
Providence seems to have formed for the protection of our fruit 
and forest trees, from the ravages of vermin; which every day 
destroy millions of those noxious insects, that would otherwise 
blast the hopes of the husbandman; and which even promote 
the fertility of the tree; and, in return, are proscribed by those 
who ought to have been their protectors; and incitements and 
rewards held out for their destruction! Let us examine better 
into the operations of nature, and many of our mistaken opi- 
nions, and groundless prejudices, will be abandoned for more 
just, enlarged, and humane, modes of thinking. 
The length of the Downy Woodpecker is six inches and three 
quarters, and its extent twelve inches; crown black; hind-head 
deep scarlet; stripe over the eye white; nostrils thickly covered 
with recumbent hairs, or small feathers, of a cream colour: 
these, as in the preceding species, are thick and bushy, as if de- 
signed to preserve the forehead from injury during the violent 
action of digging; the back is black, and divided by a lateral 
strip of white, loose, downy, unwebbed feathers; wings black, 
spotted with white; tail-coverts, rump, and four middle feathers 
of the tail, black; the other three on each side white, crossed 
with touches of black; whole under parts, as well as the sides 
of the neck, white; the latter marked with a streak of black, 
proceeding from the lower mandible, exactly as in the Hairy 
Woodpecker; legs and feet bluish green; claws light blue, tipt 
with black; tongue formed like that of the preceding species, 
horny towards the tip, where for one-eighth of an inch it is 
