THE RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER. 433 



link' wells lie I triple service. According to Professor Butler, an observer 

 ni Indiana. Mrs. J. L. Iline, once watched a Sapsucker in early spring 

 for se\en Imurs at a stretch, and dnring this time the bird did not move 

 al)i)ve a \ard fmni a cerl.ain maple tap from which it drank at intervals. 



( )rchard trees sulier nccasicinalh' frcjm this l.)ird's dei)redations, but 

 the sap cif pine or lir trees is its favorite diet and available the \'ear 

 around. 



In nesting the Red-iiaped .^ajjsucker shows a marked ])reference for 

 aspen trees and its summer range is practically confined to their vicinity. 

 A nest found on the banks of the Pend d'Oreille, opposite lone, was placed 

 twentv-five feet up in an aspen tree some sixteen inches in diameter. The 

 tree was dead at the heart but there was an outer shell of live wood two 

 inches in thickness. The bird had penetrated this outer shell with a tunnel 

 as round as an augur-hole, and an inch and a half in diameter, and had 

 excavated in the soft heart-wood a chamber ten inches deep vertically, five 

 and a half horizontally, and three from front to back. Here five eggs, "as 

 fresh as paint," reposed on the rotten chiles. Like all, or most. Woodpecker 

 eggs, these were beautifully transparent, with the position of the contained 

 yolk clearly indicated. One egg was broken with a small round hole, as 

 tho a careless claw had been stuck into it. 



The parent birds, especially the ni.nle. who was caught on the eggs as 

 tho inspecting the latest achie\einent, were \ery attentive, flying back and 

 forth in neighboring trees, and giving utterance to the kec all and other notes. 

 .\fter niv descent from the ruined home, the male alighted beside the hole 

 and tapped at the edges, as tho seeking in the sound (d' the wood explana- 

 tion of the disaster. 



No. 172. 



RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER. 



A. O. U. No. 403. Sphjrapicus ruber (Cmcl.). 



Synonym. — RKn-nKi'ASTKn Woodpixkkk. 



Description. — Adult male: Somewhat as in preceding but distiiu-tive mark- 

 ings of head and neck and chest nearly obliterated by all-prevailing carmine which 

 reaches well down f>n breast; marks alluded to most persistent in anterior portion 

 of transverse (white) chcck-stripc and in black of lores; breast (posterior to 

 carmine) and remaining underparts strongly suffused with yellow; white spotting 

 of npi)erparts greatly reduced in area and oftenest tinged with yellow; white 

 wing-bar fully persistent but often yellow-tinged — thus an evolved form of .S". v. 

 iiKchalis. with which males are said to exhibit every degree of gradation. .Idiilt 



