THE RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER. 433 



little wells do triple service. According to Pfofessor Butler, an observer 

 in Indiana. Mrs. J. L. Hine. unce watched a Sapsucker in earlv spring 

 for se\'en hours at a stretch, antl during this time the bird did not move 

 above a yard from a certain maple tap from which it drank at intervals. 



Orchard trees suffer occasionally from this bird's dejiredations, but 

 the sap of pine or hr trees is its favorite diet antl a\ailable the ^•ear 

 around. 



In nesting the Red-naped Sapsucker shows a marked preference for 

 aspen trees and its summer range is practically confined to their vicinity. 

 A nest found nn the banks of the Pend d'Oreille. opposite lone, was placed 

 twent\'-ti\-e feet up in an aspen tree some sixteen inches in diameter. The 

 tree was dead at the heart but there was an outer shell of li\-e wood two 

 inches in thickness. The bird had penetrated this imter shell with a tunnel 

 as round as an augur-hole, and an inch and a half in diameter, and had 

 excavated in the soft heart-wood a chamber ten inches deep \erticallv, five 

 and a half horizontally, and three from front to back. Here five eggs, "as 

 fresh as paint," reposed on the rotten chips. Like all, or most. Woodpecker 

 eggs, these were beautifully transparent, with the position of the contained 

 yolk clearh- indicated. One egg was l:)r<")ken with a small round hole, as 

 tho a careless claw had been stuck into it. 



The parent birds, especially the male, who was caught on the eggs as 

 tho inspecting the latest achievement, were \ery attentive, flying back and 

 forth in neighboring trees, and gi\'ing utterance to the kec ah and other notes. 

 After my descent from the ruined home, the male alighted beside the hole 

 and tapped at the edges, as tho seeking in the sound of the wood explana- 

 tion of the disaster. 



No. 172. 



RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER. 



\. O. U. No. 403. Sphyrapicus ruber frimel.). 



Synonym. — RfiD-BRE.-\sTr.D Woodpecker. 



Description. — Adult male: Somewhat as in preceding Init distinctive mark- 

 ings of head and neck and chest nearly obliterated by all-prevailing carmine which 

 reaches well down on breast ; marks alluded to most persistent in anterior portion 

 of transverse (white) cheek-stripe and in black of lores; breast (posterior to 

 carmine) and remaining underparts strongly sufifused with yellow ; white spotting 

 of npperparts greatly reduced in area and oftenest tinged with yellow ; white 

 wing-bar fully persistent but often yellow-tinged — thus an evolved form of S. i'. 

 nnchalis. with which males are said to exhibit every degree of gradation. Adult 



