396 BIRDS—PICID.A. 
The nest of the Hairy Woodpecker is often excavated in a terminal 
limb of a lofty beech, sometimes in the trunk of an apple tree, more 
rarely in adead stub. The eggs are five or six in number, and like 
those of all other birds of this family, are pure crystal white with an ivory 
texture. They are an inch in length by nearly three-fourths in width. 
Picus PuBESCENS Linneeus. 
Downy Woodpecker. 
Picus pubescens, KIRTLAND, Ohio Geolog. Surv., 1838, 162, 179.—Rwap, Proc. Phila. Acad. 
Nat. Sei., vi, 1653, 395— KIRKPATRICK, Ohio Farmer, ix, 1860, 299—WuHEATON, Ohio 
Agric. Rep for 160, 1861, 362, 372; Reprint, 4,14; Food of Birds, ete., Ohio Agric. 
Rep. for 1874, 1875, 569; Reprint, 9.— LANGDON, Cat. Birds of Cin., 1877, 11; Revised 
List, Journ. Cin. Soc. Nat. Hist., i, 1679, 178; Reprint, 12; Summer Birds, ib., iii, 
1880, 225. 
Picus medianus, KIRTLAND, Ohio Geolog. Rep., 1838, 162, 179.—REaD, Proc. Phila. Acad. 
Nat. Sci., vi, 1853, 395. 
Downy Woodpecker, BALLOU, Field and Forest, iii, 1878, 136. 
Picus pubescens, LINNZUS, Syst., Nat., i, 1776, 136. 
Picus (Dendrocopus) medianus, SWAINSON, Fn. Bor. Am., ii, 1831, 308. 
Picus medianus, NUTTALL, Man., ii, 1834, 601. 
Coloration exactly as in P. villosus except the outer tail feathers are barred with black 
and white. Length, 6-7; wing under 4; tail under 3. 
Habitat, entirely correspondent with that of P. villosus. Var. gairdneri from the 
Rocky Mountains to the Pacific. 
Common resident. Breeds. More numerous during the colder months 
than in summer. 
The Downy Woodpecker is the smallest of our members of the family. 
It is frequently misnamed “Sapsucker,” a term which can only be ap- 
plied with any propriety to the Yellow-bellied Woodpecker. | 
It is much more humble and social than the Hairy Woodpecker, being 
generally found in company with Titmice, Wrens, and Nuthatches, keep- 
ing near the ground, searching the branches of low trees or saplings, in 
the tops of fallen trees, in hedge-rows, brush heaps or on fences. It is 
quite unsuspicious of man, and continues its busy chiseling, unheedine 
his near approach. 
The nest of the Downy Woodpecker is excavated in the trunk of a 
small dead tree, often in the dead limb of an apple tree, sometimes in the 
post or rail of a fence, seldom more than twenty feet from the ground, 
often within reach. The eggs, generally five, white, unmarked, meas- 
ure .83 by .72. 
