96 DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



that on October 8, 1920, she saw an immature Yellow-bellied 

 Sapsucker drilling small holes low down on a girdled apple tree, 

 and the bird allowed her to come very close. It had bits of 

 "pulp" in its beak; the larger pieces were apparently dis- 

 carded and the smaller ones swallowed. It drilled a few strokes, 

 with its head turned to the left, and then turned it to the 

 right, and in the midst of its labors it seemed to drink from 

 the last completed boring. She reports that her husband saw 

 it eat the inner bark. Others report similar observations. It 

 seems probable that the Downy Woodpecker and possibly the 

 Hairy Woodpecker may, at times, have the same object as this 

 Sapsucker. 



Miss Florence W. Rockwell of Montague writes, June 3, 

 1920, that she has watched the Downy Woodpeckers evidently 

 drinking sap from such holes, but has not seen the pits in the 

 making. Miss Nina G. Spaulding writes from Jaffrey, New 

 Hampshire, on March 12, that she watched a Downy Wood- 

 pecker on an old apple tree evidently pecking some small round 

 holes. After he left she found fresh holes. . Some were in- 

 creased in size, evidently by pecking at the same place until 

 a large space was cleared of bark. She writes that she has 

 seen but one Sapsucker in that region, but that there are 

 quantities of round holes in apple trees. Many others report 

 the prevalence of Downy Woodpeckers and the scarcity of 

 Sapsuckers, but this cannot be accepted as conclusive proof 

 that the Sapsucker did not make the holes. 



Major Mark Robinson writes from Mowat post office, Ontario, 

 that on February 2, 1920, he saw a male Downy Woodpecker 

 in a small yellow birch making a ring of holes along one side 

 of the trunk about G inches below a knot hole, or "cat face," 

 and watched the bird for some time about 8 feet distant. On 

 April 11 he writes that he has examined carefully the holes 

 that he reported as made by the Downy Woodpecker, and 

 found that some insect had bored into the trunk of the tree. 

 It was hoped to get a photograph of this Woodpecker's work, 

 but it was learned that Major Robinson had destroyed the 

 specimen by tearing off the bark in making his examination. 

 He asserts that this work was "not in the same class" with 

 that of the Sapsucker. The Woodpecker evidently was drill- 

 ing for insects. 



