134 NATURE STUDY. 



not another sapsucker, nor yet the intrusive sparrows, but 

 of all birds about the last we should have expected, a dowyiy 

 woodpecker^ infringing on our old friend's preserves ! To 

 our delight the intruder stood his ground like the little hero 

 that he is and remained on the tree seemingly as long as 

 he cared to. But we were amazed to see that he repeated- 

 ly dipped his bill into the holes the sapsucker had made, 

 and appeared to be imbibing the sweet, enervating liquid ! 

 Will downy, in the course of time, degenerate into a sap- 

 sucking bird, lose his "snap and go," and wax fat and 

 lazy ? 



One would naturally suppose that the sugar maple, from 

 which man draws such delicious saccharine material, would 

 be of all trees the favorite of sapsuckers. This does not 

 appear to be the case. Frank Bolles, in his observations on 

 the habits of the sapsuckers at Mt. Chocorua, names the 

 canoe birch and the red maple as being the most frequent- 

 ly chosen by them for their operations. It so happens that 

 our birch stands between a- sugar maple and a red maple. 

 The sapsuckers frequently alighted on these trees and oc- 

 casionally acted as if about to commence drilling, but they 

 always gave up after a few feeble strokes, and returned to 

 the birch, which evidently yielded quicker and larger re- 

 turns for the same expenditure of effort. Our own obser- 

 vations for these five seasons also compel us to endorse Mr. 

 Bolles's conclusion that the birds consume the sap in large 

 quantities for its own sake and that sap drinking occupies 

 their time to a much greater extent than does the pursuit 

 and capture of insects. 



