200 FOREST TREES. 



Tt has been supposed by some persons that it is to obtain the 

 sugary juices from the trees that the Woodpecker bores the bark, but this 

 is a fact not fully established, and may be considered as doubtful, as the 

 bird also carries on its labours at a season when the sap is in a dormant 

 state, and consequently would not repay the trouble of boring. We 

 must give our sagacious birds credit for better insight into their business. 



I have sometimes noticed one of the small Downy or Midland 

 A\'oodpeckers tapping and rapping away at an old dry post, certainly 

 where no sap could flow out to repay it for its work. The bird would 

 stop and seem to listen for a while, and then renew his work. I think 

 he heard the prey within.* 



I once noticed a small black and white, red-crowned Woodpecker 

 diligently hammering away at a dry stick of wood lying in the yard, but 

 his exertions were useless. Some time afterwards the wood was split, 

 and a large grub was found in the middle of the stick. 



Bees often frequent the sap troughs and regale themselves with the- 

 sweet fluid. I had noticed bees coming and going on sunny days in the 

 sugar bush, and on mentioning the circumstance to an old Yankee 

 settler's wife, she told me that the wild bees frequented the troughs for 

 the sweet sap : " I guess them creeturs like good things as well as us 

 humans," she sagely remarked ; " I kinder like to see them helping 

 theirselves, and I say to myself, yer welcome to what you take." She 

 was an odd looking old woman, but I was pleased with her benevolent 

 hospitality to tlie "wild creeturs" as she called the bees. 



The northern side of the Maple is generally clothed with a thick 

 coating of moss and liver-wort for many feet upward ; probably a pro- 

 vision of the wise Creator for defending the inner tissues of the tree 

 from injury during the season of intense cold, from without, or to prevent 

 the escape of heat, from within. On the southern side the sap flows 

 more readily and earlier than on the northern ; but as the sun gains 

 more power and the days become warmer, the settler taps the tree on 

 the northern side and obtains a good flow of sap not inferior to that 

 which was obtained from the first incisions on the sunny side of the tree. 



Toward the latter end of the sugar-making season, which generally 

 terminates in the beginning of April, there is a tendency to acidity in 

 the sap, and the .syrup will not " grain " well. The latter boilings are 

 made use of for vinegar, or syrup for immediate use. A good home- 

 made wine can be made with very little trouble from Maple sap, and 

 also a cheap and jjalatable beer with the addition of a small quantity 

 of hops and yeast to "set the liquor to work." 



' Till- only WiPoil|ii'ck<T, against which tlic accnsitlnn of being a sni)-siirki'r con, with any 



rcnHim lie liroiight, is tlic ycllow-lMllicil W liiccUcr, and it would ni>iiear that thin really does- 



honietimeH '•tn]!" trce.s fdrthc sii^raiy Juice.". 



