THE BIRDS OF NEW JERSEY. 181 



402 Sphyrapicus varius (Linnaeus). 

 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. 



Adult male. — Length, 7.75-8.75. Wing, 4.90. Above, irregularly mottled 

 with blue-black and yellowish-white ; crown of head, crimson red, bordered by 

 blue-black behind ; wings, blue-black, coverts largely white, forming a longi- 

 tudinal stripe ; primaries and secondaries barred with white ; tail, black, middle 

 feathers largely white on inner webs ; outer ones narrowly edged with white ; 

 under parts, yellowish-white ; throat, crimson, bordered with black on the 

 sides and with a large black breast patch below ; sides streaked with dusky ; 

 a white band from the nostrils down the side of the neck and another from over 

 the eye around the hind neck. 



Adult female. — Similar, but crown glossy blue-black and throat white. 



Young in first summer and autumn. — Similar, but duller, more brown above ; 

 under parts, dull brown, indistinctly barred with dusky ; males soon show scat- 

 tered red feathers on the crown, and acquire the full plumage late in winter or 

 early in spring. 



Common transient. In spring, March 9th to April 12th ; in autumn, 

 September 10th to October 20th. Occasional winter resident. Plain- 

 field (Miller), Summit (Holmes), Haddonneld (Stone), Newfield 

 (Paschall), etc. 



This species is unlike any of our other Woodpeckers, a true "Sap- 

 sucker," and the regular girdles of small holes, which we not infre- 

 quently find, especially upon the fruit trees, are his work. From these 

 holes he is enabled to drink abundantly of the sweet sap, but insects, 

 as is usual with the Woodpeckers, form the bulk of his food ; these he 

 catches in the usual manner, or picks them up as they approach his 

 sap holes, or again sails out after the manner of a fiycatcher and 

 catches them on the wing. The note of the Sapsucker is weaker than 

 that of the Downy AVoodpecker. Like other Woodpeckers the young of 

 this species migrate southward while still in the "juvenal" or first sum- 

 mer plumage and where they happen to remain all winter or late in 

 the autumn, it is possible to note the acquirement of the brilliant red 

 or white marks of the adult. 



Mr. W. E. D. Scott took a specimen at Princeton, October 21st, 

 1876, which approaches the sub-species nuchalis of the west which has 

 the nape red. The specimen is now in the Princeton T'niversity Col- 

 lection.^ 



' Babson, Birds of Princeton, p. 53. 



