2C8 BoLLES (?;/ ///^ Tello~M-hcllied Woodpecker. LJ"ly 



The upper holes alone yielded sap. From this I inferred that 

 what the birds obtained was the elaborated sap descending from 

 the leaves through the fibres of the inner bark. I tasted the sap 

 and found it immistakably sweet. The leaves on branches above 

 the drills drooped, those below were in good condition. I watched 

 the drills on tlTis tree from 12.30 p.m. until 2, and from 4 until 6. 

 I was concealed in the bushes to the northwest of the tree. 

 During almost all of this period of three and a half hours one or 

 more Woodpeckers were in the tree engaged at the drills. They 

 were a male, female and two young birds. Four visits were 

 paid by Hummingbirds in the time named. The visitors were 

 driven away by the Woodpeckers. At 5.30 I shot one of the 

 young birds in order to determine the number of individuals 

 using the orchard. His absence was unnoticed by the survivors. 

 The next day, July 33, I watched from 9.30 a.m. until i p.m. 

 The male, female and one young bird were present, the tree being 

 seldom left by all at once. Ten visits were paid by Humming- 

 birds ; in five cases the birds reached the drills, and hovering, 

 drank sap from one or more of them. In the other cases, the 

 Woodpeckers being present, the Hummers were driven away. 

 The work of the Woodpeckers seemed to me, armed as I was 

 with an excellent opera glass, and sitting not more than thirty 

 feet from the drills, to be perfectly plain in character. During 

 the morning the female drilled four or five new holes. They 

 were above others in perpendicular series. They yielded sap 

 freelv. She was closely attended by the young one, who occa- 

 sionally swallowed pieces of the soft bark or cambium layer 

 taken from the bottom of the drills. The female also ate some 

 of it. When not drilling or resting the female dipped sap from 

 the holes near by. The male drilled no holes but dipped in those 

 yielding sap. The dipping was done regularly and rather quickly, 

 often two or three times in each hole. The sap glistened on the 

 bill as it was withdrawn. I could sometimes see the tongue move. 

 The bill was directed towards the lower, inner part of the drill, 

 which, as I found by examination, was cut so as to hold the sap. 

 1 looked carefully again and again to try to find insects in the 

 sap, but none were there although numbers crawled upon the 

 bark. Occasionally the birds by a nervous motion of the head 

 caught an insect. There was no doubt as to when they did this, 

 either on the bark or in the air, for in sw^allowing an insect they 

 always occupied an apprecial)le time in the process. 



