162 BIRDS THROUGH AN OPERA-GLASS. 
solder that the dependent portion of the pipe falls 
down. How they manage to cling to these verti- 
cal pipes and the nearly perpendicular portions of 
the roof is a mystery. I have seen both sexes . 
at work on our roof, but the female does not 
often indulge in this pastime, and is rarely ob- 
served to take part in the boisterous gambols 
of the males. In the groves and forests where 
tin-roofed buildings do not abound, the yellow- 
bellied woodpeckers amuse themselves by pound- 
ing upon such dry hollow trees and hard resonant 
limbs as multiply the sound tenfold, so that one 
ean ata distance readily distinguish them from 
other members of the family.” 
The name “sapsucker”’ is more appropriately 
applied to the yellow-bellied woodpecker than to 
the nuthatch, for instead of taking an occasional 
taste of the sap at the sugar-bush in spring, he 
spends much of his time riddling live trees with 
squarish holes, to which he returns to drink the 
oozing sap and feast upon the insects that gather. 
The woodpeckers, I have noticed, all work in 
about the same way, varying their methods to suit 
the character of the wood. The only time I ever 
watched the sapsucker drill a maple he worked 
like the hairy, first giving a dozen or more quick 
blows with his head turned on one side, and then 
as many more with his head on the other side — 
just as a carpenter chisels, cutting out a wedge 
instead of going straight down. After working 
