152 



BIRDS OF AMERICA 



coy manner. Whenever I approached within 

 fifteen or twenty feet, he flitted to the next tree, 

 generally keeping the tree between us. 



This Sapsucker sometimes arouses the wrath 

 of the farmer in girdling his trees for sap. There 

 would be less complaint if this red-headed resi- 

 dent stayed more in the woods, but he insists on 

 an occasional tasting of the apple trees. He likes 

 the soft maples, willows, and aspens. These are 

 also his nesting sites. The chips on the ground 

 at the foot of the tree are the surest indication 

 of a nest. The doorway to his home seems very 

 small for the size of the bird. It is from one 

 and one-fourth to one and one-half inches in 

 diameter and at times it is such a close fit that 

 Mrs. Sapsucker can just squeeze in. 



Mrs. Florence Merriam Bailey relates a very 

 interesting experience with a mother Sapsucker 

 and her young. " The last week in July at 

 Donner Lake, we found a family of dull colored 

 young going about with their mother, a handsome 

 old bird with dark red head and breast. They 

 flew around in a poplar grove for a while, and 

 then gathered in a clump of willows, where four 

 young clung to the branches and devoted them- 

 selves to eating sap. The old bird flew about 

 among them and seemingly cut and scraped off' 

 the bark for them, at the same time apparently 

 trying to teach them to eat the sap for them- 

 selves : for though she would feed them at other 

 times she refused to feed them there, and appar- 

 ently watched carefully to see if they knew 

 enough to drink the sap. When the meal 

 was finally over and the birds had flown, we 



examined the branch and found that lengthwise 

 strips of bark had been cut off^, leaving narrow 

 strips like fiddle-strings between. At the freshly 

 cut places the sap exuded as sweet as sugar, ready 

 for the birds to suck." William L. Finley. 



These Woodpeckers do not " suck " the sap, as 

 the quotation from Mrs. Bailey would seem to im- 

 ply, but sweep it in with their brush-like tongues. 



The habits of the Red-breasted Sapsucker 

 vary with the locality. In some places it doesn't 

 seem to indulge in the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker's 

 habit of girdling trees for the sap and the cam- 

 bium or soft inner bark. Reports from other 

 places say that it does more serious mischief 

 than its relative, fruit trees, especially prune 

 and apricot, and evergreens being frequently 

 killed by reason of its punctures. Ants consti- 

 tute the largest item of animal food, amounting 

 to 423/2 per cent. They are eaten every month 

 in the year except possibly February. Beetles of 

 all kinds amount to 4 per cent, and none of them 

 are useful species. Caterpillars and locusts' eggs 

 are also eaten. Altogether the animal matter 

 amounts to 69 per cent, of the total food. 



The Northern Red-breasted Sapsucker (Sphy- 

 rapicus ruber notkcnsis) is slightly larger, and 

 its coloration is darker and brighter; the red 

 of the head, neck, and chest averages brighter 

 and the whitish spots on the back are usually 

 smaller — sometimes obsolete. It is found in 

 the coast and forest districts from Alaska to 

 northern California and in winter to southern 

 California. 



WILLIAMSON'S SAPSUCKER 

 Sphyrapicus thyroideus ( Cassin) 



A. O. U. Number 404 



Other Names. — Williamson's Woodpecker ; Brown- 

 headed Woodpecker (female). 



General Description. — Length, 9 inches. M.^le : 

 upper parts, black with three white patches ; under parts, 

 black and yellow. Fem.^le : head brownish-gray ; 

 upper parts, black and brownish-gray with white spot; 

 under parts, black, brownish-buffy, and yellow. 



Color. — Adult Male : Greater part of head and 

 neck, back, shoulders, ehest. and sides of breast uniform, 

 glossy greenish blue-black; a white stripe behind eye 

 and over the ear, extending to sides of nape, where 

 considerably expanded ; a white stripe below eye and 

 under ear originating on and involving nasal tufts and 



extending to beneath end of ear region; a center stripe 

 of bright poppy-red on lozcer chin and upper throat : 

 abdomen and center of breast, bright sulphur (some- 

 times nearly lemon) yellow; sides, flanks, and under 

 tail-coverts, white, broadly striped and spotted with 

 black, the markings V-shaped on flanks and under tail- 

 coverts ; lower rump and upper tail-coverts, white, the 

 lateral portions of the former and outer webs of latter 

 largely black; tail, black; wings, black, the middle 

 coverts and outer webs of greater coverts (except inner 

 ones), white, forming a very conspicuous large longi- 

 tudinal patch on zcing, the second, or third, to fifth 

 primaries (counting from outermost) usually with a 



