“There are young birds in the nest now, and if you tap on the trunk with a stick you will hear them making a noise.  This seems to be Woodpecker day, for Nat has seen the little Downy in the woods, you have seen the Flicker on the lawn, and I was telling him about two others; so you are just in time not to be too late.  Now write the table for Nat’s Downy, first, and then we will have the rest of the Woodpeckers.”

The Downy Woodpecker

The smallest North American Woodpecker—­hardly seven inches long.

Upper parts black, with a long white patch on middle of back; wings spotted with black and white.  Some black and white bars on the outside tail-feathers.  Red band on back of head of the male, but not of the female.

Under parts all white.

A Citizen of the eastern half of North America, where he stays all the year round.

A good and useful neighbor—­one of the best.  Does not bore holes in trees to injure them or eat the sap, but to get at the hurtful grubs which live under the bark, and the sharp, barbed tongue is especially fitted to pick thorn out of the holes which are dug with the stout chisel-like beak.

Eats a little fruit, chiefly-wild berries, and is a hard-working member of the guilds of Tree Trappers and Ground Gleaners, as he eats not only grubs, but ants, beetles, bugs, caterpillars, and spiders.  He is also a Seed Sower, though in being so he and his brothers, without intentional mischief, scatter the seeds from the watery white berries of the poison ivy.  He always digs for himself a nest in some partly decayed tree, and never takes long journeys, but moves about only in search of food.

THE RED-HEADED WOODPECKER

“There, that will do for the Downy,” continued the Doctor, as the children finished the table; “only I ought to tell you that I have a friend who calls him the Flying Checker-board, because he looks when he flies as if he were checkered all over in squares of two colors—­black and white.  The Red-head is a much gayer bird, with three colors—­ha! there goes one now!  This is Woodpecker day indeed, and we are in luck.”

A very handsome bird, glittering in the sun, had come looping swiftly past, and swung himself up to the broken-off top of a tall tree, where he rattled a loud rataplan, as much as to say, “Am I not a fine fellow?”

“Yes, I know him,” said Rap eagerly; “there’s a pair that have a nest in our orchard, the same I guess that were there last year, when they raised a brood, only when the young ones came out they had gray heads instead of red ones, and their wings were not clear white like this one’s, nor their backs so shiny black—­is that right, Doctor?”

[Illustration:  RED-HEADED WOODPECKER.]

“Yes, my boy, and it shows you know how to use your eyes, for young Red-heads look very different from their parents till they get a new suit.  You remember that we called the Bluebird the Flag Bird, on account of his three colors.  But this Woodpecker has the red of the head much brighter than a Bluebird’s breast, and shows purer white as he flies, in large spaces on his back and wings; though his blue is not so bright—­it is what we call blue-black, very dark and glossy, like polished steel.”