184 The Canadian WoodpeeTcers, 



SAP-SUCKERS. 



The next tliree species of Woodpeckers we shall notice have been-calleil 

 Sap-suckers, the name originating in the belief of many persons that the 

 perforations made by them in the bark of fruit trees are for the purpose of 

 enabling the bird to extract the sap. Ornithologists in defending their 

 favom-ites, stoutly deny this ,charge, and on the contrary contend that those 

 trees around which so many girdles are placed by these active little birds^ 

 are usually the most healthy in the orchard. Whether they draw out the 

 sap or not, it appears to be cjuite true that they sometimes destroy a good 

 deal of valuable property. The following remark which we have met with 

 in a paper, entitled "Notes on the Ornithology of Wisconsin, by P.E.Hoy,. 

 M. D., of Racine Wisconsin, published in the Proceedings of the Academy 

 of Natural Sciences, Pliiladelphia, is entitled to full confidence. Speaking 

 of the yellow bellied Woodpecker (Picus varias.) he says : — " This Wood- 

 pecker visits the orchards during September and. October, to feed upon the 

 inner bark of the peach and cherry, girdling the stems so efiectually as not 

 unfrequently to kill the trees. I have watched them while thus ei:.gaged in 

 my own garden, c^nd have carefully examined under a microscope the contents 

 of the stomachs of numerous specimens." * According to this statement, 

 the boring operation of these Woodpeckers is at least some times injurious. 

 It is probable, however, that the damage they occasion is more than repaid 

 by the service they render it destroying the numerous insects that prey upon 

 our fruit trees. 



Of 



o 



The three followiug species are somewhat common in Canada, bein 

 more or less numerous in every part of the country. From their general 

 black and white colours they r-esemble each other, but are easily distinguished 

 after a little attention. 



Picus Yaeius, (Linn.) Tellow-bellied Woodpecker. 



Specific Chap^cters. — Blale with the crown of the head and throat 

 red, back black, variegated with white ; lower parts yellow, a 

 crescent of black on the fore part of the breast. Female the 

 same, but without red on the throat ; length, 8}4 ; width, 15. 

 Inhabits the United States and British Provinces, northward 

 to tJte Sdscatchewan. The specific name is Latin, {Varius,) 

 « changeable, or of divers colours or fasJtions. 



The Yellow-bellied Woodpecker, like most others of its tribe, bores a 

 hole in a tree and lap its four or five white eggs in the cavity upon the bare 

 wood. It generally, dm-iug the breeding season, retires to the more solitary 

 woods, and is therefore not so numerous in the neigiibourhood of the farms 

 in the summer, as it is in autumn. The following is the more full description 

 fiu-nished bv Wilson : — • 



" The Yellow-bellied Woodpecker is eight inches and a half long, and in- 

 extent fifteen inches ; whole crown, a rich and deep scarlet^ bordered ^itla 



* Proc^ Acad. Nat. Sci., vol. 6, page 3S4» 



