220 BIRDS OF NEW ENGLAND AND EASTERN NEW YORK 



Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. Sphyrapicus varius 

 8.56 



Ad. $. — Crown and throat crimson, edged with black; line 

 from bill under eye white ; back and wings black, everywhere 

 speckled with white ; broad stripe from shoulder along edge of wing 

 white; middle tail-feathers barred with white ; upper breast 

 black; belly yellowish. Ad. 9- — Similar, but throat white. 

 Im. — Crown blackish; throat whitish; breast gray, with blackish 

 bars. 



Nest, in a hole in a tree. Eggs, white. 



In the Canadian Zone the Sapsucker is a common sum- 

 mer resident ; elsewhere in New England and New York it 



Fig. 67. Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 



is a migrant, passing north in April, and returning in late 

 September and early October. It is occasionally found in 

 winter in the lower Hudson Valley. On migration it is 

 found in apple orchards, open groves, and not infrequently 

 on shade trees about the houses. The Sapsucker breeds 

 in Massachusetts only on Mount Greylock, and there but 

 sparingly ; but on the upland of Vermont, in northern and 

 central New Hampshire, in the Adirondacks, and in the 

 Maine woods, it breeds commonly. 



Each pair have a " sugar orchard " of maple or birch, 

 to which they resort constantly to drink the sap ; in order to 



