56 Notes on some of the North American Woodpeckers.


glass and note-book ; and in the wilder parts of the country, as every

bird-lover will realise, a very large stock of patience is also necessary,

for among the wonderful echoes of the forests and mountains the

tapping and drumming of a Woodpecker sounds sometimes in one

direction and sometimes in another in a most tantalising way, and

many difficulties may have to be overcome before the bird is found.


Among American agriculturists, fruit-growers and lumbermen

many are found who consider all Woodpeckers a nuisance, and

condemn the whole race because of their borings in timber and

fruit-trees, in buildings, telegraph and telephone poles, and such¬

like places. But I believe that strictly scientific observation will

prove that only two, or perhaps three, out of the twenty Woodpeckers

of the country do any real injury to valuable crops or wood. These

“ bad boys ” are the Sap-Suckers, the Yellow-bellied Woodpecker

(Sphyrapicus varius ), the Red-breasted Woodpecker (S. rubra), and

perhaps Williamson's Woodpecker (S. thyroideus or williamsonii).

These tear off the bark, bore deep into the trees and feed on the

.cambium, the inner hark of trees, and also on the sap, in such a

wholesale manner that the trees are riddled with deep holes, the

grain of the wood becomes distorted and knotted, and its market

value lost for ever, even if the trees attacked do not die.


The harm done by the more shallow borings (except for their

nests) of the other Woodpeckers is, on the other hand, far outweighed

by the good they do in their constant destruction of the tree-

injuring worms and insects, which are left untouched by the surface¬

feeding birds.


For this reason the United States Government has put a

stop to the wholesale shooting, trapping and poisoning of Wood¬

peckers of whatever variety, and the Sap-Suckers alone have to pay

the penalty of their crimes, and the harmless members of this most

interesting family are reasonably protected.



