15© Bird - Lore 



Since the question is often discussed as to how much damage the Sapsucker actually 

 does, Dr. Fisher compiled the following excerpts and abstracts from the works of well- 

 known observers. These give both sides of the question impartially. A recent bulletin 

 on Woodpeckers in Relation to Trees and Wood Products by W. A. McAtee (Bull. No. 

 i,g, Biological Survey, U. S. Dept. of Agric.) states with more exactness the observa- 

 tions of our national foresters, who agree that the punctures made by Sapsuckers injure 

 trees for the lumber trade greatly. In the study of birds, trees and insects, it is a valuable 

 method to follow, to correlate the relations of one to the other, and the injury or benefit 

 each sustains through the habits of the others. It is probably true that the Sapsucker 

 does not do a great amount of harm to trees through the sapsucking habit, but how this 

 peculiar habit first arose, and to exactly what extent it may be carried by different 

 individuals, is of great interest. 



Alexander Wilson thought that the principal food of the Yellow-bellied Woodpecker 

 or Sapsucker was insects. He wrote: "They seem particularly fond of frequenting 

 orchards, boring the trunks of the apple trees in their eager search after them." 



An extremely interesting study may be made by comparing the observations of the 

 various writers cited: first, with reference to the sapsucking habits of Woodpeckers, 

 notably of the so-called 'Sapsuckers' for Woodpeckers have this habit to a very slight 

 extent so far as known; and second, with reference to the effect of punctures or borings 

 in the wood in connection with the uses to which it is put in the form of dressed lumber. 

 That so beneficial a family as the Woodpeckers should have one 'black sheep' in its 

 number is certainly a misfortune so far as man's relations to birds are concerned. How- 

 ever, in the study of birds we should strive always to clearly distinguish between the 

 work of birds in nature with and without reference to man, if we wish to get a true point 

 of view. — A. H. W.] 



MERRIAM, C. HART. Remarks on Some of the Birds of Lewis County, Northern 

 New York. Bull. Nutt. Ornith. Club, 4:1-6, Jan., 1879. 



Dr. Merriam says that the Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers really do consider- 

 able mischief by drilling holes in the bark of apple, thorn-apple, and mountain- 

 ash trees; occasionally he has observed them drilling holes in a young elm. 

 They make girdles of punctures, sometimes two feet or more in breadth (up 

 and down), about the trunks and branches. The fact of their destroying some 

 of these trees, notably the apple, especially in the West, has often been recorded. 

 The holes, which are sometimes merely single punctures, and sometimes 

 squarish spaces (multiple punctures) nearly half an inch across, are placed so 

 near together that not infrequently, they cover more of the tree than the 

 remaining bark. Hence, more than half of the bark is sometimes removed from 

 the girdled portions, and the balance often dries up and comes off. Therefore 

 it is not surprising that trees which have been extensively girdled generally 

 die. Mountain-ash are much more prone to do so than either apple or thorn- 

 apple trees, due, very likely, to their more slender stems. 



The only part of Dr. Merriam's interesting article that is abstracted here 

 is the part treating of the injury done to trees by the Sapsucker. — G. C. F. 



BOLLES, FRANK. Yellow-bellied Woodpeckers and Their Uninvited Guests. The 

 Auk, 8: 256-270, July, 1891. 

 Summary. — From these observations I draw the following conclusions: 

 that the Yellow-bellied Woodpecker is in the habit for successive years of 



