YELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUCKER 137 



Dr. C. Hart Merriam (1879) speaks of the bird thus: "In few 

 species can the date of arrival, in spring, be ascertained with such 

 precision as in the bird now under consideration ; for, no sooner are 

 they here, and recovered from the fatigue of their northward journey, 

 than the country fairly resounds with their cries and drumming. 

 * * * Noisy, rollicking fellows, they are always chasing one 

 another among the trees, screaming meanwhile at the top of their 

 voices, and when three or four vociferous males alight on the same 

 tree, as often happens, their boisterous cries are truly astonishing." 



William Brevv'ster (1876a) mentions a "peculiar snarling cry" used 

 as an alarm note, and of a pair at the nest he says : 



Watcliiug once a nest for an hour or two, I remarked that the birds relieved 

 each other in the labors of incubation at intervals averaging about half an 

 hour each. The one that had been absent would alight just below the hole, 

 and, uttering a low ycw-ick, yew-ick, its mate would appear from within, when, 

 after the interchange of a few notes of endearment, the sitting bird would fly off 

 and the other instantly enter the hole. * * * 



Both young and old utter most frequently a low snarling cry that bears no 

 very distant resemblance to the meio of the Catbird. The adults have also two 

 other notes — one, already spoken of, when the opposite sexes meet ; the other a 

 clear, ringing clear, repeated five or six times in succession, and heard, I think, 

 only in the spring. 



Of the voice of the sapsucker, Bendire (1895) says: "Its ordinary 

 call note is a whining 'wliiiee,' and it utters a number of other sounds, 

 some of these resembling the calls of the Blue Jay, and others those 

 of the Red-shouldered Hawk. During the mating season, when the 

 sexes are chasing each other, a series of notes like 'hoih-hoih,' a num- 

 ber of times repeated, are frequently heard. Although generally 

 disposed to be more or less noisy, while clinging to their food trees 

 they are always silent as far as my observations go." 



The note mentioned above does resemble the cry of the blue jay 

 somewhat in form, but the notes of the two birds need never be con- 

 fused. The sapsucker's may be as long as the blue jay's, or the caw 

 of a crow ; again it may be given as a very short syllable. The note 

 commonly is not nearly so loud as the blue jay's and the tone of voice 

 is different ; it is a complaining whine rather than a boisterous shout. 



Another note, a minor note heard only when one is near the bird, 

 is very like the explosive hit of the red-breasted nuthatch — the little 

 conversational note that the nuthatches use as they scramble over the 

 bark, not the nasal toot. 



The most remarkable of the sapsucker's utterances, in that it does 

 not resemble a bird note at all, is a single syllable sounded regularly 

 over and over again — a low-toned tuck, like slow, sharp strokes on 

 a nonresonant branch. This note might sometimes be mistaken for a 

 chipmunk's pluck, except that it lacks completely any ringing quality 

 of tone. 



90S01— 39 10 



