LAND BIRDS. 359 



or third year of use; that the total damage done by them is too insignificant 

 to justify their persecution in well wooded regions" (Auk, II, 1885, 270). 



Aside from the sap and bark eaten the bird has a varied diet. Eighty- 

 one stomachs examined' and reported on by Professor Beal, of the U. S. De- 

 partment of Agriculture, show that the food consisted of animal and vege- 

 table matter in exactly equal amounts. Forty-eight per cent of the food con- 

 sisted of insects, of which 36 percent was ants, 5 percent beetles, 2 percent 

 caterpillars, 3 percent flies, 1 percent grasshoppers, and 1 percent plant- 

 lice. The remaining 2 percent of animal matter was made up of spiders 

 and myriapods. The insect food thus consumed is, however, of slight 

 economic importance, from the fact that the ants are themselves of un- 

 certain value and the other forms because they are taken in such small 

 amounts. Undoubtedly some little good is done by the consumption of 

 caterpillars and plant lice, but the amount must be very shght. On the 

 other hand, about one-half of the vegetable food (23 percent of the whole 

 food) consisted of the inner bark of various trees, while most of the re- 

 mainder of the vegetable food was fruit. The fruits taken, however, with 

 the possible exception of some of the blackberries and raspberries, were all 

 wild fruits, and their consumption caused no loss to the fruit grower, It 

 is worthy of mention that only one stomach among the 81 examined con- 

 tained any seeds of the poisonous sumac, which is exceptional among the 

 woodpeckers, these birds as a rule being industrious planters of these 

 baleful seeds. 



Probably this species of woodpecker, oftener than any other, excavates 

 its nesting hole in the trunk or branch of a sound and living tree. This is 

 by no means its universal custom, since nests are often found in dead wood, 

 but it frequently uses the living tree. It begins to nest about the first of 

 May, and digs a hole from eight to eighteen inches deep, the entrance being 

 perfectly circular and about one and one-half inches in diameter. The eggs 

 are from five to seven, and are laid, like those of most woodpeckers, on the 

 chips at the bottom of the hole, without any nesting material. They are 

 pure white, glossy, without spots, and average .86 by .66 inches. 



A nest taken by Jerome Trombley, of Petersburg, Monroe county, Mich., 

 was twenty-five feet up in a small basswood stub, near the edge of the woods. 

 It was ten inches in depth and contained five fresh eggs on May 25, 1880. 

 Another nest, of four fresh eggs, was found at Goodrich, Genesee county 

 May 19, 1887, and on Grand Island, Lake Superior, Mr. E. A. Doolittle 

 found several nests containing young the last week in June, 1906. Accord- 

 ing to Mr. Dunham it is a common summer resident in Kalkaska county, 

 and breeds. On the other hand, Mr. Newell A. Eddy, of Bay City, states 

 that from records extending over twenty years he finds nothing that 

 would indicate that it breeds in that locality. 



In regard to its notes Mr. Bicknell states: " Perhaps at the time it passes, 

 April [Hudson Valley], it is not ready to begin courtship, and drumming, 

 which, as with other woodpeckers, in a measure takes the place of song, 

 is deferred until the birds are ready to seek their mates. I have never 

 known this woodpecker to drum in autumn. At that season it seems 

 especially reserved." In the vicinity of the Agricultural College the 

 Sapsucker drums freely in April and May, after which time it seems to 

 disappear and we have never found it nesting here. At Locke, however, 

 in the same county, Dr. Atkins found it a common summer resident and 

 '"•nesting; it has also been reported in summer from the southeastern part 

 of this county. 



