232 AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 



Mr. Warren in his book, "Birds of Pennsylvania, " says: — "1 examined 

 two dozen or more oranges which had been attacked by the wood- 

 peckers and found that all had been bored about midway between the 

 stem and blossom end. These holes, always round, varied greatly in 

 size. The birds usually, I think, pick off the skin from a space about the 

 size of a five cent piece and then eat the pulp. On one occasion 1 saw a 

 Red-bellied Woodpecker eating an orange. He evidently recognized the 

 fact that it was about the last of the season, as he had enlarged the open- 

 ing sufficiently that his head was almost entirely hidden in the yellow 

 skin, from the sides of which he picked the few remaining particles of 

 pulp. 1 was shown orange trees that these sapsuckers were said to have 

 bored. These borings, however, did not appear to injure the trees, as 

 they seemed to me to be equally as flourishing as other trees whose trunks 

 showed no marks of a woodpecker's bill." 



Probably the loss to the fruit growers is more imaginary than real. 1 

 figured in a case of this sort this summer. While crossing the corner of a 

 three acre field of grass, the owner held me up. We had a lengthy argu- 

 ment in which he severely scored all gunners and camera fiends, and if 

 his estimate of the damage done in the short distance I had traveled was 

 correct, my shoes must cover over an enormous amount of territory. For 

 my part I would gladly give up the pleasure of eating a few oranges for 

 the benefit of these handsome birds, and would gladly welcome them to 

 Massachusetts, although as yet I believe they have not been recorded, 

 at least in Worcester County. 



ALBINO BLACKBIRDS. 



Between the widening fork of Lowell street and Massachusetts avenue 

 lie the Great Meadows of East Lexington. They are surrounded by 

 sunburned fields which make the electric cars seem far away; and here the 

 flowers bloom and the birds sing as though in a remote wilderness. If an 

 ornithologist once visits this place, he will remember it for it is the resort 

 of many of the rare ducks and waders, and one is sometimes startled by 

 the wierd cry of the loon. One day this past spring while walking along 

 the shore I noticed several blackbirds in some button bushes, and creeping 

 near without letting them sight me, what was my surprise to see among 

 them, two birds with singular plumage. The head, throat and upper part 

 of the back was white, and the wings and tail feathers tipped with black. 

 Some of the birds flew deeper into the marsh but the albinos remained, 

 and presently uttered the "tchuck, tchuck" followed by the liquid "cong- 

 ka-ree," though when one of them flew to a dead tree, he showed no 

 scarlet epaulette. I continued to watch them until they took flight, with 

 a happy sense for the moment, that nature had favored me with the sight 

 of a white blackbird. Wilson h. fav. 



