PERSONA NON GRATA 41 



in the woods, or else he would have caught them 

 in his usual fly catching fashion. There must 

 have been something about the mountain ash tree 

 that he craved. As it is a very rare tree in the 

 vicinity of my home, the sapsucker's only chance 

 to satisfy his longing was by coming to some 

 town garden like our own. 



Not only is the theory improbable, but it fails 

 to explain the sapsucker's actions in this in- 

 stance. In twenty years he was never seen to 

 catch an insect that was attracted by the sap he 

 drew. This does not deny that he may have 

 caught insects now and then, but it does deny 

 that he set the sap running for a lure. As he 

 was never far away, and was sometimes only 

 four and a half feet by measure from a cham- 

 ber window, all that he did could be seen. He 

 did not catch insects at his holes. He drank 

 sap and ate bark. 



Finally, the theory is not only improbable and 

 inadequate, but in this instance it is impossible. 

 I do not remember seeing a sapsucker in the tree 

 in the spring ; if he came in the summer, it must 

 have been at rare intervals ; but he was always 

 there in the fall, when the leaves were dropping. 

 At that season the insect hordes had been dis- 

 persed by the autumnal frosts, so that we know 

 he did not come for insects. 



