1S92.J BoLLES, Totitig Saf suckers in Captivify. I IQ 



were alive, that was all. At eight o'clock Two had a violent 

 convulsion and never recovered from it. A few moments later 

 One, who had clung to life with such tenacity, died in the same 

 way — maintaining to the last the advantage which he had first 

 claimed in the nest. Number One was examined by an expert 

 physician in Cambridge, who pronounced his liver enormous and 

 in a diseased condition. It nearly filled the abdominal cavity, 

 crowding other organs. It was soft and greenish. Number Two 

 was forwarded to the Department of Agriculture which reported 

 that the bird "had enlargement and fatty degeneration" of the 

 liver. The most probable cause of this enlargement of tlie liver, 

 which seems to have been the reason for the death of the three 

 Sapsuckers, was an undue proportion of sugar in their diet. In a 

 wild state they would have eaten insects every day and kept their 

 stomachs well filled with the chitinous parts of acid insects. 

 Under restraint they sec4.ned fewer and fewer insects, until, dur- 

 ing the last few weeks of their lives, they had practically no solid 

 food of any kind. Two of them lived in captivity exactly fifteen 

 weeks, and the third fourteen weeks. During that time they sub- 

 sisted mainly upon maple syrup diluted to half its strengtli with 

 water. This diet was not refused nor disliked by them at the out- 

 set ; quite the contrary, it was adopted readily. It did not cause 

 speed}' death, nor even indigestion. The birds did not moj^e and 

 pine ; they enjoyed life, changed their plumage as much as caged 

 birds could be expected to do, and until nearly the time of their 

 deaths manifested no abnormal condition. In fact they throve 

 upon maple syrup and were in an apparently healthy condition for 

 more than three months. 



Summary. From these experiments I draw the following con- 

 clusions : (i), that the Yellow-bellied Woodj^ecker may be suc- 

 cessfully kept in captivity for a period corresponding to that 

 during which as a resident bird he taps trees for their sap, sus- 

 tained during this time upon a diet of which from 90 to 100 per 

 cent is diluted maple syrup ; (3), that this fact affords evidence of 

 an extremely strong character, in confirmation and support of the 

 theory that when the Yellow-bellied Woodpecker taps trees for 

 their sap he uses the sap as his principal article of food, and not 

 primarily as a bait to attract insects. 



