REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 119 



Unfortunately there is one small group of woodpeckers, properly 

 known as " sapsuckers,'' which are destructive rather than beneficial. 

 Still they must be credited with doing some good by eating insects, 

 though they do much injury by pecking holes in the bark of trees, 

 especially fruit trees, for the purpose of obtaining the inner bark 

 and the sap, both of which are highly relished for food. As they 

 return to the same tree time after time, and often season after season, 

 the area denuded of bark constantl}^ grows larger, and many young 

 trees are killed. Moreover, the effect of their boring is visible in 

 the shape of checks, distortions, and stains years afterwards when 

 the trees are felled and worked up into lumber. It has been esti- 

 mated that the damage to wood products in the United States by 

 these sapsuckers is more than a million dollars yearly. This in- 

 vestigation of the habits of the sapsuckers and the kind and extent 

 of the injuries they inflict on trees and lumber appears in the form 

 of a bulletin, together with suggestions as to the best method of 

 protecting trees from their attacks. 



SHORE BIRDS. 



Notwithstanding their small size and the fact that many of them 

 retire to the far North to breed, our shore birds have been so ruth- 

 lessly pursued by gunners that all of them are fast diminishing in 

 numbers, at least one species has been exterminated, and several 

 others are nearing the same end. The value of shore birds as food 

 is widely recognized and is indeed the chief cause of their present 

 scarcity. But few are aware that many of them do good service by 

 eating noxious insects, including mosquitoes in the larval state. 

 Being valuable both for food and because they destroy insects, their 

 extermination would be a calamity, especially as during some part 

 of tlie year they visit every State in the Union and range from 

 ocean to ocean. The prohibition of the sale of these birds, the 

 abolition of spring shooting, and the restriction of the bag limit in 

 the open season will probably result in preserving the several species 

 for future generations. 



CRAYFISH. 



In certain regions of the Southern States, particularly in north- 

 eastern Mississippi and Alabama, crayfish are very numerous, and 

 in their early stages do much damage to crops, such as corn, cotton, 

 and other staples. In the States mentioned they infest a territory 

 of approximately 1.000 square miles and in certain restricted sec- 

 tions fairly swarm, their holes numbering thousands to the acre. 

 In such places successful crop raising is impossible, and a large 

 acreage noted for its fertility is practically useless because of the 



