262 USEFUL BIRDS. 



it winters in considerable numbers, and there bores holes 

 into the summer cottages and finds winter shelter in the 

 rooms, where it sometimes does some damage by pecking 

 at the window sashes and curtains and in other ways. If 

 the owners of these cottages had put up a few cheap bird- 

 boxes on their buildings or trees, with entrances large 

 enough for the Flicker, the birds might have used the 

 boxes, and never have contracted the criminal habit of 

 breaking and entering. 



Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. 

 Sphyrapicus varius. 



Length. — About eight and one-half inches. 



Adult Male. — Above, brownish or yellowish, marked with black and white; 

 below, yellowish; sides black-streaked; a broad white stripe from shoulder 

 along the black wing; crown and throat patch crimson; border of both 

 patches and line through eye black ; a black breast patch ; belly yellowish. 



Adult Female. — Similar, excej^t that the throat patch is whitish, instead of 

 scarlet. 



Nest and Eggs. — Much like those of other Woodpeckers. 



Season. — Migrates north through the State in April, and south in September and 

 October ; breeds rarely in Berkshire Comity. 



There would be no justification for including this hand- 

 somely marked bird among the useful s})ecies of ^lassachu- 

 setts, except for the fact that in thirty years no instance 

 has come to my knowledge of its doing any appreciable 

 harm here. There can be no doubt that it has killed trees 

 in northern Xew England, where it breeds ; but, as it does 

 some good while here by destroying insects, citizens of the 

 State can have no shadow of an excuse for destroying any 

 Woodpecker, for all the other species that visit this State 

 are more useful than this. The red crown and throat, and 

 the broad white stripe or patch on the black wing, will dis- 

 tinguish it from more useful species. 



CUCKOOS, KINGFISHERS, ETC. 



Kingfishers feed mainlv on fish, but occasionally subsist 

 very largely on such insects as grasshoppers. These birds 

 are no doubt necessary to help maintain the balance of 

 nature whenever animals on which they feed tend to in- 

 crease beyond normal numbers. They are not of suflicient 



