Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 195 



Murder is committed on his immensely useful 

 relatives, who have the misfortime to look 

 ever so little like him, simply because ignorant 

 people's minds are firmly fixed in the belief that 

 every woodpecker is a sapsucker, therefore a 

 tree-killer, which only this miscreant is, and 

 very rarely. The rest of the family who drill 

 holes in a tree harmlessly, even beneficially, do 

 so because they are probing for insects. The 

 sapsucker alone drills rings or belts of holes for 

 the sake of getting at the soft inner bark and 

 drinking the sap that trickles from it. 



Mrs. Eckstorm, who has made a careful study 

 of the woodpeckers in a charming little book 

 that every child should read, tells of a certain 

 sapsucker that came silently and early in the 

 autumn mornings to feed on a favourite moun- 

 tain ash tree near her dining-room window. In 

 time this rascal killed the tree. '* Early in the 

 day he showed considerable activity," writes 

 Mrs. Eckstorm, "flitting from limb to limb and 

 sinking a few holes, three or four in a row, usual- 

 ly above the previous upper girdle of the limbs 

 he selected to work upon. After he had tapped 

 several limbs, he would sit patiently waiting 

 for the sap to flow, lapping it up quickly when 

 the drop was large enough. At first he would 

 be nervous, taking alarm at noises and wheeling 

 away on his broad wings till his fright was 

 over, when he would steal quietly back to his 



