76 AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 



and below the eye, and the white patch on the throat, which show quite plain- 

 ly in the picture, were hardly observable when I first saw them. The birds 

 got so accustomed to me in my camp chair that even the old ones became 

 quite tame. The most confidence, however, was shown by the young. So 

 fearless these became that one of them permitted my little girl who was 

 with me one day to reach her hand within a foot of it before it flew to 

 another branch. 



Adult Sapsucker. 



This family of sapsuckers, of which I saw so much last summer, acted 

 in a very commonplace manner, much like common birds and common men 

 working for a living. I was hoping all the time to see them performing some 

 wonderful feats never witnessed nor described by any naturalist, and I 

 would secure a monopoly of the birds' peculiar mannerisms, write them up, 

 get my story copyrighted and the method of observation patented. Next 

 summer I will not spend my time watching the birds in the ordinary routine 

 of their life, but will endeavor to find some individuals which will rise above 

 commonplaces and open up to my expectant gaze a whole chapter of 

 psychological phenomena. 



But, seriously, there were a few things that deeply interested me last 

 summer, as I watched my bark-boring friends. Hoping that these may be 

 also of interest to some of your readers I will record them. And first, I 

 became convinced from my observations of these birds that the sap of the 

 trees is their principal food. My first impression was that they were after 

 the ants, flies and butterflies which gathered about the exuding sap; and that 

 the birds perforated the bark for the sole purpose of attracting the in- 



