WOODPECKERS 



151 



probable that they had become over stimulated 

 from the sap which the heat of the sun had 

 fermented. In the fall they are quiet and 

 reserved. 



The YelUnv-bellied Sapsucker is one of the 

 few Woodpeckers that have more vegetable 

 matter than animal matter in their diet ; the vege- 

 table matter is about 51 per cent, of the total 

 food. The examination of a number of stomachs 

 showed that ants amounted to over 34 per cent, 

 of the whole food. They are evidently a favorite 

 food for they are eaten regularly throughout the 

 year. Bark lice, stink-bugs, spiders, May-flies, 

 sun-flies, grasshoppers, crickets, tree-hoppers, 

 cater])illars and moths constitute the remainder 

 of the animal food. I'ruit amounted to 28 per 

 cent, of the total food, but it was probably the 

 wild fruit or berries which had been left on the 

 bushes. Conifer seeds and poison ivy seeds with 

 some rubbish, such as the outer bark of trees, 

 make up about 6 per cent. 



While the animal food of this bird should be 

 reckoned in its favor, it must be remembered that 

 the damage it inflicts on trees in eating the sap 

 and the cambium is very serious and is often so 

 extensive that it cannot be balanced bv the good 

 that the bird does in other directions. Investi- 

 gation by the Biological Survey show that the 

 damage to timber, especiallj' in the Southern 

 States, is extensive and serious. 



Drawing by R. I. Brasher 



YELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUCKER (i nat. size) 

 A noisy, rollicking fellow 



RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER 

 Sphyrapicus ruber ruber (Gmclin) 



.\. O. U. Number 403 



General Description. — Length, 8^2 inches. Head, 

 reel I upper parts, black spotted with white; under parts, 

 yellow. 



Color. — Head, neck, and chest, bright red: nasal 

 tufts, front and lower portion of lores, dull yellowish- 

 white ; lores next to eye, black, this sometimes con- 

 tinued, narrowly, along edge of forehead; red below 

 eyes lighter than that of cheeks, the latter blackish at 

 front end ; rest of under parts, very pale straw-yellow. 

 the breast washed with bright red. the sides, flanks, and 

 under tail-coverts less yellowi.sh-white, broken by mostly 

 V-shaped markings of dusky grayish; general color of 

 upper parts (except head and neck), black, broken by 

 a double series (converging behind) of white spots 



down middle of back, a longitudinal white patch on 

 Zinng-coverts (involving most of middle coverts and 

 outer webs of greater coverts) and white spots on outer 

 web of primaries and at tip of inner secondaries, the 

 inner web and tip of upper tail-coverts also white, and 

 inner web of middle pair of feathers with oblique, 

 square spots of white ; bill, brownish-black ; iris, brown. 



Nest and Eggs. — Nest: In an aspen, maple, or 

 willow, 15 to 25 feet from the ground. Eggs: 5 or 6, 

 white. 



Distribution. — California; from northern California 

 to mountains of southern California, east to western 

 slope of Sierra Nevada; south in winter to southern 

 Lower California. 



Although the Red-breasted Sapsucker nests 

 throughout our Oregon woods, I do not find his 

 home very often. I see more of him through 

 the winter season when he skirmishes about the 



orchard for food. Last winter I saw one about 

 our place several times. I tried to approach 

 him, but he shied around to the opposite side of 

 the tree and kept peeking around at me in a very 



