YELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUCKER 139 



At other times it may drill holes — even the young birds of the 

 year, which can have had little experience in this kind of work. 

 They drill with a sideways stroke, to one side, then the other, then, 

 perhaps, a stroke straight at the branch. In this manner, before 

 very long, a small area is denuded of bark, the sideways strokes 

 giving it an oval shape with the long axis parallel to the ground. 

 However, at this season, mid-October, in the latitude of Boston, little 

 sap rewards their efforts. 



Winter. — Sapsuckers spend the winter mainly in the Southern 

 States, Central America, and on the islands south of North America, 

 but there are a few records indicating that a bird rarely may remain 

 nearly or quite as far north as the southern limit of the breeding 

 range. For example, Fred. H. Kennard (1895) reports finding one 

 in Brookline, Mass., on February 6, 1895. Collected, "he proved to 

 be in fine, fat condition"; and Harriet A. Nye (1918) watched, in 

 Fairfield Center, Maine, a bird throughout the winter of 1911, in 

 which the temperature fell to 32° below zero. Apples formed a 

 considerable part of this bird's diet, although he often hunted over 

 the branches and trunks of trees. He was last seen April 5 "as 

 sprightly as ever." 



DISTEIBUTION 



Range. — North and Central America and the West Indies, casual 

 in Bermuda and Greenland. 



Breeding range. — This species breeds north to southeastern Alaska; 

 (probably Skagway) ; southern Mackenzie (Nahanni Mountain, Fort 

 Providence, and Fort Eesolution) ; northern Manitoba (Cochrane 

 River and probably Fort Churchill) ; Ontario (Lac Seul and prob- 

 ably Moose Factory) ; Quebec (Montreal, Quebec City, Godbout, 

 Ellis Bay, and probably Eskimo Point) ; and Newfoundland (Fox 

 Island and Nicholsville) . East to Newfoundland ( Nicholsville, Deer 

 Lake, and Harrys Eiver) ; Nova Scotia (Sydney and Halifax) ; 

 Maine (Bucksport and Livermore Falls) ; southeastern New Hamp- 

 shire (Ossipee and Monadnock Mountain) ; western Massachusetts 

 (Chesterfield) ; New Jersey (Midvale) ; and western Virginia 

 (Sounding Knob, Cold Mountain, and White Top Mountain). 

 South to southwestern Virginia (A^Hiite Top Mountain) ; northwest- 

 ern Indiana (Kouts) ; central Illinois (Peoria) ; eastern Missouri (St. 

 Louis) ; Iowa (Keokuk, Grinnell, and Ogden) ; southeastern South 

 Dakota (Sioux Falls and probably Vermillion) ; New Mexico (Pot 

 Creek and Diamond Peak) ; Arizona (Buffalo Creek and Kaibab 

 Plateau) ; and southern California (San Bernardino Mountains, San 

 Jacinto Mountains, and Mount Pinos). West to California (Mount 

 Pinos, Big Creek, Cisco, Carlotta, and Mount Shasta) ; western 

 Oregon (Prospect, Elkton, Salem, and Tillamook) ; Washington 



