YOUNG SAPSUCKERS IN CAPTIVITY. 



I SPENT much time during the summer of 

 1890 in watching yellow-breasted woodpeckers 

 at work in their " orchards " near Mt. Cho- 

 corua, N. II. From my observations I drew the 

 following conclusions, that " the yellow-breasted 

 woodpecker is in the habit ... of drilling . . . 

 trees for the purpose of taking from them the 

 elaborated sap, and in some cases part of the 

 cambium layer ; that the birds consume the sap 

 in large quantities for its own sake and not for 

 insect matter which such sap may chance occa- 

 sionally to contain ; that the saj) attracts many 

 insects of various species, a few of which form a 

 considerable part of the food of this bird." 



These conclusions differed so radically from 

 opinions held by many ornithologists that some 

 persons, who either doubted the sufficiency and 

 unimaginativeness of my observations, or who 

 read my conclusions without scrutinizing my state- 

 ments of fact, were unwilling to admit that I 

 had proved the yellow-breasted woodpecker to 

 be a sap-drinker. In order to present additional 

 and different evidence in the case, I determined 



