YELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUCKER 133 



when first swallowed. Neither do we get any record of the sap consumed by 

 these birds [the three species of sapsucker] and they are inordinate tipplers. 

 Hence the value of the percentages cited lies not so much in their accuracy 

 as to the quantity of cambium eaten as in the fact that they indicate a steady 

 consumption of this important substance. There is no doubt that cambium, 

 bast, and sap are depended upon by sapsuckers as stable diet. 



We may get some idea of the amount of sap consumed by the bird 

 from Frank Bolles' (1892) record of his three young captive sap- 

 suckers. He says: "Ordinarily they disposed of eight teaspoonfuls 

 [of diluted syrup] each during the twenty-four hours. Part of this 

 evaporated, and part was probably secured by black ants which 

 visited the cage by night." 



Bolles (1891), describing the method of feeding of birds in the 

 wild, says: "The dipping was done regularly and rather quickly, 

 often two or three times in each hole. The sap glistened on the bill 

 as it was withdrawn. I could sometimes see the tongue move. The 

 bill was directed towards the lower, inner part of the drill, which, 

 as I found by examination, was cut so as to hold the sap." 



This is the common method of feeding, but sometimes, when two 

 or more holes have coalesced into a vertical groove, the bird will run 

 its bill upward along the edge of the wound, sipping the sap much 

 as we might, with our finger, wipe off a drop running down from a 

 pitcher's lip. 



McAtee (1911) states that "about four-fifths of the insect food of 

 the three species of sapsuckers consists of ants, the eating of which 

 may be reckoned sliglitly in the birds' favor. The remainder of the 

 food is made up of beetles, wasps, and a great variety of other 

 insects, including, hov>-ever, practically no wood-boring larvae or 

 other special enemies of trees. The birds' vegetable food can not 

 be cited in their behalf, as it consists almost entirely of wild fruits, 

 which are of no importance, and of cambium, the securing of which 

 results in serious damage." 



F. E. L. Beal (1895) mentions, as articles in the sapsucker's diet, 

 the berries of dogwood, black alder, Virginia creeper, and wild black 

 cherries. Winfrid A. Stearns (1883) says: "Nuts, berries, and other 

 fruits vary its fare ; and to procure these it may often be seen creep- 

 ing and hanging in the strangest attitudes among the terminal twigs 

 of trees, so slender that they bend with the weight of the bird." Au- 

 dubon (1842), in his plate of the sapsucker, gives an animated picture 

 of the bird thus engaged 



Brewster (1876a) shows the bird as an expert flycatcher, "l^rom 

 an humble delver after worms and larvae, it rises to the proud inde- 

 pendence of a Flycatcher, taking its prey on wing as unerringly as 

 the best marksman of them all. From its perch on the spire of some 

 tall stub it makes a succession of rapid sorties after its abundant 



