THE OOLOGIST. 



123 



dig to uncover the insect lifO; and the 

 dainty Downy works and feeds in prac- 

 tically the same manner that the large 

 Pileated Woodpecker follows. But 

 there are two exceptions to the general 

 habit, or we may say that there are 

 charges at times. These differences 

 occur in the Yellow-bellied and Gold- 

 winged Woodpecker; for the former at 

 times varies his diet with liquid sweets, 

 while the latter sometimes leaves the 

 tree trunks and plunges his bill into the 

 soft earth of the ant hill in search for 

 this kind of insects. Therefore, these 

 two Woodpeckers are at times known 

 as the sap-sucker and grubber. 



The Golden- wing leaves its perch on 

 trunk and limb, and takes up a position 

 on an ant hill or even on the level 

 ground, where it devours the ants with 

 great satisfaction. This is the more 

 astonishing change in a bird when we 

 consider that there are so very few 

 birds which will eat ants at any time, 

 and I do not know of another species in 

 my neighborhood which is largely in- 

 terested in ants, excepting the variable 

 Sap-sucker. Someone has claimed that 

 the Yellow-bellied Sap-sucker embraces 

 36 per cent, of ant food, but then this 

 matter of food differs in season, and 

 both the Yellow-bellied and Flicker ar- 

 rive some time before the ants appear 

 in any number in the spring. 



Upon its arrival in late March, or 

 more likely about the tenth of April, 

 the Yellow-bellied Woodpecker pro- 

 ceeds to bore a number of holes in the 

 bai'k of certain trees producing sweet 

 sap. These usually selected are the 

 sugar maple and common planted ever- 

 green, though others are often bored, 

 including the tulip tree. The holes are 

 generally about a quarter of an inch in 

 diameter and are rarely much more 

 than that in depth. The holes ai'e usu- 

 ally elliptical in shape, and especially 

 so on the coniferous trees. Many claim 

 that these holes are bored so that the 

 bird may secure the insects which will 



congregate around the sweets, but I 

 think this a ridiculous notion, as the 

 Sap-suckers are often seen feeding from 

 these holes when there is an April snow 

 storm and much too cold for any in- 

 sects to appear on the bark or anywhere 

 in the open. The Sap-sucker is easily 

 approached when feeding and I have 

 stood at the distance of five or six yards 

 and watched them many times, and I 

 am fully satisfied that they very rarely 

 catch an insect in their first week's stay 

 at the north; but that they sip the sap 

 from the bored holes is surely the case, 

 for I have witnessed the act scores of 

 times. 



In the Belted Kingfisher we have an- 

 other species t^at gets its living by div- 

 ing in the lake and stream, but this 

 plunge is entirely unlike the plunge of 

 the Pelicans or Osprey. The Kingfisher 

 hovers as does the Osprey and as follow- 

 ed sometimes by the Pelicans, and like 

 those larger Ushers is also a surface 

 fisher. The Kingfisher descends at an 

 angle of sixty to eighty degrees and en- 

 ters the water bill first, but so quickly 

 is the stop made at the surface that in 

 many cases the bird does not disappear 

 beneath the water, though I have seen 

 the Blue >^ngler remain ten seconds un- 

 der the surface. The prize does not 

 average more than three and a half la- 

 ches long and many minnows of no 

 greater length than two inches are 

 creeled by this law breaker; however, 

 a five inch shiner is occasionally brought 

 to the surface. When a small minnow 

 is captured it is generally swallowed 

 whole, the bird perching itself and tak- 

 ing the little chub head first. But when 

 a minnow is too large to swallow whole 

 the prize is dissected and eaten piece- 

 meal, and this operation is sometimes 

 performed in the presence of observers; 

 but I have only once seen the dissection. 

 The bones of the fish are usually regurg- 

 itated after the carcass is digested, after 

 the manner of the Owl's process of get- 

 ting rid of the bones of small mammals 



