THE YELLOW-BELLIED WOODPECKER. 97 



So far as my own observation has been, it is not found at 

 all abundant in any part of these States ; and I think, that, 

 on the seaboard, it is rare. 



It arrives from the South, from about the 10th to the 20th 

 of April, and soon commences pairing. I have never noticed 

 any great peculiarity in its habits. It seems to prefer the 

 woods to the more open districts, and very seldom indeed 

 makes its appearance, in the breeding season, in the orchards 

 and nurseries, where, as it is often said by persons wjio are 

 prejudiced, it does considerable damage in boring into apple- 

 trees and sucking the sap ; hence it is called the " Sap- 

 sucker." I am not sufficiently acquainted with its habits, in 

 the Western States, to say positively that it does not eat 

 some of the inner bark of trees, when in pursuit of its 

 favorite insect-food ; but I cannot help thinking that the 

 denunciations of it, so often seen in the Western papers, 

 are exaggerated. 



Dr. Bryant, who has paid some attention to the examina- 

 tion of the food of this bird, gives, in the " Proceedings of 

 the Boston Society of Natural History," vol. X. 91, the fol- 

 lowing remarks : 



" It has long been known that some of our smaller woodpeckers 

 pick out portions of the sound bark of trees, particularly of apple- 

 trees, where there are no larvas, and apparently no inducement for 

 them to do so. What their object is has never been satisfactorily 

 established. In Massachusetts, I am not aware that these holes 

 are ever sufficiently large or numerous to cause any material injury 

 to the apple-trees : they are generally seen in circles round the 

 limbs or trunks of small irregularly rounded holes, and in this 

 vicinity are made almost exclusively by the Downy Woodpecker 

 (P. pubescens), aided occasionally by the Hairy Woodpecker (P. 

 villosus). In certain parts of the West, however, it is said that 

 great damage is done to orchards by the Yellow-bellied Wood- 

 pecker (S. varius) ; and Dr. Hoy, of Racine, Wis., has advanced 

 the theory that the object of the bird in so doing is to obtain the 

 inner bark for food. A number of specimens of this bird, for- 

 warded by Dr. Hoy to the Smithsonian Institution, have been 



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