162 
PICUS PUBESCENS. 
45 . PICUS PUBESCENS , LINNJEUS. — DOWNY WOODPECKER. 
WILSON, PLATE IX. FIG. IV. — MALE. — EDINBURGH COLLEGE 
MUSEUM. 
This is the smallest of our woodpeckers, and so 
exactly resembles the former in its tints and marking’s, 
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 
some 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 mentioned, but by the whole venerable body of 
zoologists in Europe, who have treated of its history, 
viz. that it is almost constantly 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 gene- 
rally pitched upon for this purpose. The tree is 
minutely reconnoitred for several days previous to the 
operation, 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 compasses. He is occasion- 
ally relieved by the female, both parties working with 
the most indefatigable diligence. The direction of the 
hole, if made in the body of the tree, is generally down- 
wards, by an angle of thirty or forty degrees, for the 
distance of six or eight inches, and then straight down 
for ten or twelve more ; within roomy, capacious, and 
as smooth as if polished by the cabinetmaker ; but the 
entrance is judiciously left just so large as to admit the 
bodies of the owners. During this labour, they regu- 
