1892.] BoLLES, Young Saf Slickers in Captivity. Ill 



cubic feet. Its floor was covered with sawdust, its face was 

 closed by fine wire mosquito netting, and apple and aldeu 

 branches were arranged for perpendicular and horizontal perches. 

 A sliding door allowed me to handle the birds when necessary. 

 During the afternoon of the day of their capture I fed each bird 

 four times with sugar and water. Holding each little creature 

 in mv left hand I slid the tip of a small quill toothpick between 

 its mandibles, when it quickly drank the few drops of liquid held 

 in the half-iilled quill. The second time I did this the bird 

 opened its beak willingly. By the fourth lesson the rapid use of 

 the long and nervous tongue in draining the quill of every particle 

 of moisture showed that the quill was a satisfactory substitute for 

 the parent's bill. 



At 5 A.M. on July 8 the young Sapsuckers began a lively 'rat- 

 tat, tat-ta-ta, tat-tat' on the resounding sides of their box. They 

 were unmistakably hungry when, an hour or two later, I presented 

 the point of the quill at a hole in the wire netting. One bird 

 after another drank the diluted maple syrup witli which I filled 

 the tube. I repeated this process at intervals of about half an 

 hour until evening, the birds becoming more and more expert in 

 draining the quill and more and more prompt in responding to 

 my offers of nourishment. Number One was the most restless 

 and aggressive ; Number Three the slowest in feeding, and the 

 least hungry. It was also the dullest in coloring. On the 9th 

 the birds did not begin to stir until about 7 o'clock, their cage 

 having been darkened so as to prolong their slumber. On my 

 presenting the quill all three tried to drink at once, and Number 

 One was very rough with the others, striking them sharply with 

 his beak. His violence led me to add a second room to the cage, 

 into which the others could withdraw to escape him. I placed 

 it directly above the other, with a round hole in the floor oppo- 

 site a similar opening in the top of the first cage. None of the 

 birds noticed the hole, either from below or from above, when 

 put in the upper room. I placed cups of bircli bark and wooden 

 trouglis filled with syrup in various parts of both cages, but the 

 birds did not go to them. They took more syrup th;in on the 

 Sth, drinking a greater number of times and more at each time. 

 Towards eveiung I exchanged the quill for a slender spout of 

 birch bark through which I let the syrup ooze. They drank 

 from the sp )ut, from the netting down which drops coursed, and 



