SONGLESS BIRDS OF ORCHARD AND WOODLAND. 257 



not care to take any food but the sap. I could get within six feet of 

 the bird without any trouble while it was taking sap. It then left and 

 went into a large tree, and I lost it ; but if I had staved by the tree I 

 think it would have come back before night, as it had done when I was 

 watching it, for it was gone half an hour at one time. 



The two young trees that were tapped were red maples 

 (Acer rubrum*). The incisions in each case were similar, 

 and from their appearance we may as- 

 sume that the bird first struck its bill 

 into the bark from the right upward, 

 and then from 

 the left down- 

 ward, leaving a 

 small bridge of 

 bark to cover 

 the opening. 

 It then took 

 the sap by in- 

 serting its bill 

 at the lower 

 orifice, a, the ^ 

 upper one, 6, 

 allowing the 

 free entrance of 

 air to facilitate 

 the flow of the 

 sap out of the 

 lower at a. 



The vegetable 

 food of this 

 AVood pecker 

 is varied and 

 rather small in 

 quantity. In 

 spring it eats a Fl *' ll0 ' Fi * 116 " 



few buds and petals of flowers ; some berries, such as June- 

 berries and wild strawberries, in summer ; and in fall and 

 winter it eats pokeberries, poison ivy, sumac, mullein, and 

 other seeds. Frozen apples are eaten in winter. According 



