A QUARTET OF WOODLAND DRUMMERS 199 



cider. He goes to the sugar maple for his syrup, to the 

 mountain ash for his wine, and in the North indulges much 

 in his favorite cup of hemlock. 



The sapsucker is not the only one that likes the sap of 

 trees. In the country where he makes his summer home, 

 insects of many kinds are said to gather around the little 

 wells he makes and lean over to draw up the sweet juice 

 through their tube-like mouth-parts, somewhat as a boy 

 might drink through a straw the clear water from a wood- 

 land spring. Several kinds of little people go there to 

 feast; there are flies of different sizes and colore, and 

 there are gnats, and an occasional yellow jacket. Ants, 

 too, climb up the trees and elbow their way among the 

 others for their share. 



While all this is going on, many of the company get 

 their feet mired in the sticky juice which has been spilled 

 about the edges of the spring and are there held fast. 

 Pretty soon the sapsucker comes back for his dinner, when 

 lo ! he finds that some one has been stealing it from him, 

 and there are the little thieves caught sure and fast. He 

 does not appear to be at all angry at this but hops about 

 and cheerfully snaps up and eats all the insects he can 

 find, and turns to catch others buzzing near. Some ob- 

 servers think that the sapsuckers do not do this very often, 

 but confine their diet almost entirely to sap. It would be 



