WINTER NEIGHBORS 145 



across. They are evidently made to get at the 

 tender, juicy bark, or cambium layer, next to the 

 hard wood of the tree. The health and vitality of 

 the branch are so seriously impaired by them that 

 it often dies. 



In the following winter the same bird (probably) 

 tapped a maple-tree in front of my window in fifty- 

 six places; and when the day was sunny, and the 

 sap oozed out, he spent most of his time there. 

 He knew the good sap-days, and was on hand 

 promptly for his tipple; cold and cloudy days he 

 did not appear. He knew which side of the tree 

 to tap, too, and avoided the sunless northern expos- 

 ure. When one series of well-holes failed to sup- 

 ply him, he would sink another, drilling through 



the bark with great ease and quickness. Then, 

 when the day was warm, and the sap ran freely, he 

 would have a regular sugar-maple debauch, sitting 

 there by his wells hour after hour, and as fast as 

 they became filled sipping out the sap. This he 

 did in a gentle, caressing manner that was very 

 suggestive. He made a row of wells near the foot 

 of the tree, and other rows higher up, and he would 

 hop up and down the trunk as these became filled. 

 He would hop down the tree backward with the 

 utmost ease, throwing his tail outward and his head 

 inward at each hop. When the wells would freeze 

 up or his thirst become slaked, he would ruffle his 

 feathers, draw himself together, and sit and doze 

 in the sun on the side of the tree. He passed the 

 night in a hole in an apple-tree not far off. He 



