84 LIFE HISTOKIES OF NOETU AMERICAN BIRDS. 



The Yellow-bellied Sapsucker is a regular inigrant, usually arriving on its 

 breeding grounds in our more northern States about the middle of April, the 

 males preceding the females about a week, and returning to its winter homes in 

 the south in the latter part of September and throughout October; while many, 

 presumably birds which spend the summer in the more southern portions of 

 their breeding range, extend their migrations to the West India Islands, and 

 others even through Mexico to Guatemala and Honduras, in Central America. 

 It is sometimes met with in winter as far north as latitude 40°, and occasionally 

 even farther. None of our Woodpeckers are more noisy and boisterous than 

 this species; their querulous call notes are uttered veiy frequently after their 

 return from their winter homes, and the males may at this time be heard drum- 

 ming almost incessantly, resorting to a resonant limb of some tree, the gable of 

 a roof, and even to tin escape pipes. Dr. C. Hart Merriam, in his paper on the 

 "Birds of Lewis County, New York," makes the following remarks on this 

 subject: "At this season scarcely an hour passes, from daylight till sunset, that 

 one or more can not be heard drumming with commendable perseverance upon 

 the tin roofs, eave troughs, or escape pipes of our houses or some of the out- 

 buildings. They strike the tin violently half a dozen or more times, evidently 

 enjoying the sound thus produced, and then rest a few minutes before repeating 

 the performance. Each Woodpecker usually returns to the same sj)ot, and on 

 our roof are several patches the size of one's hand from which the paint has 

 been entirely drummed off. On the escape pipe they sometimes follow around 

 a joint, and by constant and long-continued pounding so loosen the solder that 

 the dependent portion of the pipe falls down. How they manage to cling to 

 these vertical pipes and nearly perpendicular portions of the roof is a mystery 

 to me. I have seen both sexes at work on our roof, but the female does not 

 often indulge in this pastime, and is rarely observed to take part in the boister- 

 ous gambols of the males." ^ 



This species is a true Sapsucker; its hyoid apparatus is not as well developed 

 as is the case in the majority of our Woodjieckers, the tongue being but slightly 

 extensile and reaching- only a little distance beyond the tip of the bill. Une 

 of the most notable peculiarities of this Woodpecker and that from which it 

 derives the name of "Sapsucker," is its habit of tapping certain trees, especially 

 in the spring of the year, puncturing both the outer and inner bark with small 

 holes resembling gimlet holes, which causes the sap to flow freely; on this, as 

 well as on the tender inner bark, it lives to a considerable extent. 



At this season of tlie year I believe the greater portion of their sustenance 

 is derived in this manner, varied with a diet of spiders, ants, beetles, and other 

 winge<l insects and such of their larvae as are found hidden under the bark; 

 while they rarely dig sufficiently deep in the more solid wood to reach those of 

 the Buprestidce and other wood borers, which are the staj^le food of the majority 

 of our Woodpeckers. For this reason, instead of being a beneficial species, like 

 the rest of this family, in certain localities, as where apple orchards are abun- 



• Bulletin Nuttall Oruithological Club, Vdl. IV, 1870, p. 2. 



