284 CONNECTICUT GEOL. AND NAT. HIST. SURVEY. [Bull. 



WOODPECKERS. 



Picidce. 



Of the four Woodpeckers that now occur in any numbers 

 in Connecticut, the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus 

 varius varius) is the only harmful species ; and it is with us only 

 as a tolerably common spring and fall migrant. This is the species 

 that drills the series of small circular openings so often found on 

 the trunks of apple trees, to eat the inner layer of bark and drink 

 the sap that exudes into these tiny cups. Birches and the moun- 

 tain ash are favorites with this bird, on account of their abun- 

 dant sweet sap; and the trees are sometimes killed by too per- 

 sistent tapping. In the Turtle Mountains of North Dakota the 

 author has noticed that most of the larger birches that showed 

 evidences of this bird's work were dead at the top. But not alone 

 for the sap and bark does the sapsucker drill these holes ; he has 

 a choice feast from the insects that are attracted (Merriam, 

 Bulletin Nut tall Ornithological Club, Vol. 4, 1879, p. 3). A cer- 

 tain amount of insect food is necessary to the species at least in 

 youth ; for young birds fed as exclusively as possible on a diet of 

 maple syrup died with the symptoms of starvation, and the 

 stomachs of eight adults shot in June and July were full of in- 

 sects. (Bolles, The Auk, Vol. 8, 1891, p. 269, and Vol. 9, 1892, 



p. 119.) 



Professor Beal reports that in 313 stomachs examined the 

 vegetable part more than equaled the animal; 34.31 per cent of 

 the entire food consisted of ants, the rest of the animal portion 

 being wasps, beetles, flies, bugs, grasshoppers, crickets, and May- 

 flies ; while the chief items of the vegetable portion are fruit and 

 cambium. (Beal, "Food of the Woodpeckers of the United 



States.") 



Our commonest and smallest Woodpecker, the Downy, 

 (Dryobates pubescens medianus) is also the most useful. In 140 

 stomachs Prof. Beal reports there was found 74 per cent of in- 

 sects, 25 per cent of vegetable matter, and 1 per cent of mineral 

 matter or sand. " The ants constitute almost one-third of all the 

 animal food, or about 23 per cent of the whole, indicating a very 

 decided taste for this rather acid and highly flavored article of 

 diet. Beetles stand a little higher in order of importance, amount- 

 ing to about one-third of the entire insect food, or somewhat more 



