168 
PICUS PUBESCENS. 
what is worth remarking, chiefly on the south and 
southwest sides of the tree, for the eggs and larvae 
deposited there by the countless swarms of summer 
insects. These, if suffered to remain, would prey upon 
the very vitals, if 1 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 fer- 
tility of the tree ; and, in return, are proscribed by those 
who ought to have been their protectors ; and incite- 
ments and rewards held out for their destruction ! Let 
us examine better into the operations of nature, and 
many of our mistaken opinions and groundless preju- 
dices 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 designed to 
preserve the forehead from inj ury 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, pro- 
ceeding 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 barbed ; bill, of a bluish horn 
colour, grooved, and wedge-formed, like most of the 
