The Audubon Societies 305 



result. They made no more pits, but the little fellows soon learned how 

 to enlarge and make them themselves. This seemed to discourage the 

 adults, and they would go oflf for hours to fend for themselves, leaving the 

 young imbibing sap. The flowing sap attracted a host of insects, so that the 

 young managed to vary their diet by picking up many flies, ants, and small 

 moths. 



One of the most interesting features of my observations was the watching 

 of the antics of the various animals which were attracted to the flowing sap. 

 A pair of Hummingbirds devoted their whole time to the tipple. They became 

 entirely demoraUzed and, instead of performing the duties for which nature in- 

 tended them, they went on one long and extended spree. I expected to see 

 these Uttle tyrants drive the Sapsuckers away, but they did not do so, fearing, 

 perhaps, to "kill the goose which laid the golden egg." The antics of the 

 male Rubythroat were wonderful and marvelous. At times he would swing 

 back and forth through the air in an arc of nearly half a circle with a diameter of 

 thirty feet, for some twenty to thirty times in succession. He did this with 

 incredible swiftness and, when he made the turn at each end of the arc, he would 

 puff out his ruby patch until it looked like flame. 



The effect of the tipple on a gray squirrel was exactly the reverse. It made 

 him so loggy and stupid that I could almost touch him with my paddle before 

 he would move. He merely slouched up the tree and went to sleep in a crotch 

 above. Some of the red squirrels acted similarly, and some of them were 

 unduly quarrelsome. In the early evening, large hawk moths darted from 

 one set of pits to another, and neglected the multitude of flowers below. 



I have no doubt that the sap acted as a stimulant to these various animals, 

 as the odor was similar to that of pomace around an old cider-mill. Why it 

 did not have a stimulating effect on the Sapsuckers, as it appeared to 

 on the Hummingbirds and squirrels, I cannot say. The young birds stuck 

 to their tipple until I had to leave for three weeks, and when I returned I 

 saw them no more. 



There has always been considerable argument among naturalists as to 

 the damage caused by Sapsuckers. The gray birches in Fig. 2 were killed by 

 their work. A brood of young Sapsuckers were reared on these birches in 19 13. 

 In nearly all of the apple orchards in the vicinity, the trees had been pitted more 

 or less. The trees were all alive and apparently bearing well. At the same 

 time, they probably would have done better without the sap-letting. The pits 

 which the adult birds make for their own use are smaller than are those made 

 for the rearing of the young, and cannot do so much damage. The Sapsucker 

 driUs a great deal for insects, but, Uke many human beings, he never becomes 

 entirely weaned from his bottle. 



[The method of observation used in obtaining these remarkably interesting facts is 

 the simple one of seeing, having eyes to see with, and afterward of setting down in order 

 what was actually seen without exaggeration, or the attribution to birds of faculties 



