NORTflERN RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER 153 



tint will be found to have disappeared and the egg changed to a pure, 

 delicate white, the shell showing a moderate amount of luster. There 

 is considerable variation in their shape, running as they do through 

 all the different ovates to an elongated ovate." 



The measurements of 54 eggs average 23.61 by 17.51 millimeters; 

 the eggs showing the four extremes measure 25.40 by 17.78, 24.13 by 

 18.54, 21.84 by 17.27, and 23.11 by 16.26 millimeters. 



Food. — Mr. Neff (1928) lists 67 species of fruit, forest, and orna- 

 mental trees and shrubs that are known to have been tapped by the 

 red-breasted sapsucker, sliowing that this species is not at all particu- 

 lar as to what kind of sap it drinks. A total of 64 stomachs were 

 examined, representing every month in the year. "The stomach anal- 

 yses revealed 40.7 percent of vegetable food, and 52.53 percent insect 

 food." Ants formed the bulk of the insect food, running as high 

 as 80 percent in July ; other items were boring beetles and their larvae, 

 other beetles, weevils, caddiceflies, aphids, various flies, mites, and 

 spiders. Fruit averaged less than 4 percent of the food and included 

 elderberries, wild cherries, haw and dogwood berries. "No cultivated 

 fruits were taken and seeds were almost a minus quantity. True 

 cambium or soft inner bark averaged 31.35 percent ; most of this was 

 taken between October and April. Other bark, fibre, and miscellane- 

 ous vegetable matter averaged 5.14 percent." 



Bendire (1895) says: "Their food consists principally of grubs, 

 larvae of insects, ants, various species of lepidoptera, which they catch 

 on the wing, like Flycatchers, and berries. * * * They seem to 

 be especially fond of wild strawberries." 



Behavior. — Charles A. Allen, of Nicasio, Calif., wrote to Major 

 Bendire (1895) : "These Woodpeckers are very fond of hanging to 

 telegraph poles, and may be found drumming along the line of the 

 Central Pacific Railroad through the Sierra Nevadas, where you can 

 hear them beating a tattoo for hours at a time. If you try to ap-, 

 proach one, as soon as a certain distance is reached the bird will sidle 

 to the opposite side of the pole, and then keep peeping around the 

 corner at whatever has excited his suspicions, and as soon as it thinks 

 it has a good opportunity to escape it will fly away with a shrill cry, 

 and keep the pole in line between it and yourself for protection. Here 

 they are very shy, and remain very quiet if discovered." 



According to Bendire's own experience — 



These birds are not at all shy during the breeding season, allowing yon to 

 approach them closely; but they have an extraordinarily keen sense of hearing. 

 T frequently tried to sneak up to a tree close to my house which I knew had 

 been selected by a pair of these birds, to watch them at work, but I was invari- 

 ably detected by the bird, no matter how carefully I tried to creep up, before 

 I was able to get within 30 yards, even when she was at work on the inside 

 of tlie cavity and could not possibly see me. The bii'd would cease working 

 at once, her head would pop out of the hole for an instant, and the surroundings 

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