188 GRAY LADY AND THE BIRDS 
“Perhaps those were females,’’ said Sarah Barnes. 
“Yes, the paler ones are the females and lack the red 
throat and sometimes the red head-feathers, also,” said 
Gray Lady, ‘for this bird is called the Sapsucker, Yel- 
low-bellied Sapsucker, because it has, as Bobby has 
told us, the bad habit of not only boring into trees for 
insects, but sucking the sap as well, and when a number 
of them are found together, of course, they are likely to 
do harm. Still, to my mind, the very worst that they 
do is to give a bad name to the family of the most 
industrious insect-eating birds that we have. 
“Even though this Sapsucker takes enough sap to 
have earned his title, he keeps up the family record as 
an insect eater, for he has a form of the pointed tongue 
with hooked bristles on the end, like all Woodpeckers, 
and this weapon acts both as a spear and trap to catch 
insects. Then, too, the Sapsucker is not a permanent 
resident, like many of his family, but nests early in the 
most northerly states and travels about during a great 
part of the year. As he can only suck sap during the 
growing season, and eats insects the year around, besides 
many wild berries—such as those of poison ivy, dogwood, 
etc. —that are of no use to us, I think he should be for- 
given his sip of fresh spring sap, except where, as in the 
case of Bobby’s grandfather, he is caught in the act of 
hurting valuable trees. 
THE SAPSUCKER 
A bacchant for sweets is the Sapsucker free! 
“The spring is here, and I’m thirsty !”’ quoth he: 
“There’s good drink, and plenty stored up in this cave; 
’Tis ready to broach!”’ quoth the Sapsucker brave. 
