THE AUK: 



A Q^UARTERLY JOURNAL OF 



ORNITHOLOGY. 



VOL. IX. April, 1892. No. 2. 



YOUNG SAPSUCKERS IN CAPTIVITY. 



BY FRANK BOLLES. 



As READERS of 'The Auk' may remember, I spent much time 

 during the summer of 1890 in watching Yellow-bellied Wood- 

 peckers at work in their 'orchards' near Mt. Chocorua, N. H. 

 From my observations I drew the following conclusions ('The 

 Auk,' July, i89i,p. 270), that "The Yellow-bellied Woodpecker 

 is in the habit ... of drilling . . . trees for the purpose of taking 

 from them the elaborated sap, and in some cases part of the cam- 

 bium layer ; that the birds consume the sap in large quantities for 

 its own sake and not for insect matter which such sap may chance 

 occasionally to contain ; that the sap attracts many insects of 

 various species, a few of which form a considerable part of the 

 food of this bird." 



These conclusions differed so radically from opinions held by 

 many ornithologists that some persons, who either doubted the 

 sufficiency and unimaginativeness of my observations, or who 

 read my conclusions without scrutinizing my statements of fact, 

 were unwilling to adrnit that 1 had proved the Yellow-bellied 

 Woodpecker to be a sap-drinker. In order to present additional 

 and different evidence in the case, I determined to secure several 

 living Sapsuckers, to cut them off as completely as might be 

 practicable from insect food, to feed them if possible upon con- 

 centrated maple sap, and to see whether a diet of that kind would 



