The Woodpecker Family 367 



the sap, a bird may visit another tree it has tapped and 

 then a third, after a time returning to the first and drink- 

 ing the sap which has refilled them. When the sap 

 flows fast enough, a sapsucker will sometimes remain 

 for hours at one spot. 



Notice whether the rows of holes are more likely to 

 run up and down or around the trunk. If you consider 

 the direction in which the sap is moving before the tree 

 is tapped, you can tell whether more would flow out from 

 a given number of holes arranged in a vertical or in a 

 horizontal row. Do you find them arranged so as to 

 cause the largest flow of sap ? 



The sapsucker holes, although neither large nor deep, 

 injure .the trees in two ways : first, they cause the loss 

 of quite a quantity of sugar which the leaves have made 

 for the nourishment of the tree ; and secondly, they 

 interrupt the channels through which this sweet sap can 

 flow down to nourish the roots or be stored for the future 

 needs of the tree. Girdling by sapsuckers has caused 

 the death of some trees. 



Indirectly the sapsucker is harmful in still another 

 way. It gives the woodpeckers a bad reputation. Just 

 as hawks and owls in general must suffer because some 

 kinds catch chickens, and snakes in general suffer be- 

 cause some kinds are able to inflict poisonous bites, so 

 woodpeckers in general are likely to bear the blame for 

 damaging trees because one kind does damage them. 

 The woodpeckers do not deserve this evil reputation; 

 among them are some of our most useful birds, and 

 these merit protection, even though they eat some fruit 

 from cultivated vines and trees. 



