THE AUK : 



A Q_UARTERLY JOURNAL OF 



ORNITHOLOGY. 



VOL. V. July, 1888. No. 3, 



NOTES ON THE HABITS, NESTS, AND EGGS OF 

 THE GENUS SPHTRAPICUS BAIRD. 



BY CAPT. CHARLES E. BENDIRE. 



I. Sphyrapicus varius. Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. 



The general habits of the eastern representative of this genus, 

 Sphyrapicus varius^ the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, have been so 

 well written up by Mr. William Brewster in the 'Bulletin' of the 

 Nuttall Ornithological Club (Vol. I, No. 3, Sept., 1876, pp. 

 63 to 70), and later by Dr. C.Hart Merriam in the same 'Bulle- 

 tin' (Vol. IV, No. I, Jan. 1879, pp. i to 6), that there remains 

 nothing new for me to state. 



As some of the readers of 'The Auk' may not have access to 

 the above-mentioned articles, I will simply mention that, accord- 

 ing to Mr. Brewster, the favorite nesting-sites of S. varhis are 

 large, dead birches, and that the average height of the excavation 

 from the ground is at least 4.0 feet, in some instances consider- 

 ably more, and that a decided preference is manifested by this 

 species for the vicinity of water. He gives the eggs as number- 

 ing from five to seven in a set, and varying considerably in shape, 

 some being oblong, others decidedly elliptical. They average 

 .85 in length by .60 inches in breadth, are pure white in color, 

 and, he states, there is much less of that fine polish than in eggs 

 of the other species of Woodpeckers he had examined. 



The average measurement of the few eggs of S. varius in the 

 Collection of the National Museum, six in number only, is .84 X 

 .65 inches. 



