162 BIRDS THROUGH AN OPERA-GLASS. 



solder that the dependent portion of the pipe falls 

 down. How they manage to cling to these verti- 

 cal pipes and the nearly perpendicular portions of 

 the roof is a mystery. I have seen both sexes 

 at work on our roof, but the female does not 

 often indulge in this pastime, and is rarely ob- 

 served to take part in the boisterous gambols 

 of the males. In the groves and forests where 

 tin-roofed buildings do not abound, th,e yellow- 

 bellied woodpeckers amuse themselves by pound- 

 ing upon such dry hollow trees and hard resonant 

 limbs as multiply the sound tenfold, so that one 

 can at a distance readily distinguish them from 

 other members of the family." 



The name "sapsucker" is more appropriately 

 applied to the yellow-bellied woodpecker than to 

 the nuthatch, for instead of taking an occasional 

 taste of the sap at the sugar-bush in spring, he 

 spends much of his time riddling live trees with 

 squarish holes, to which he returns to drink the 

 oozing sap and feast upon the insects that gather. 



The woodpeckers, I have noticed, all work in 

 about the same way, varying their methods to suit 

 the character of the wood. The only time I ever 

 watched the sapsucker drill a maple he worked 

 like the hairy, first giving a dozen or more quick 

 blows with his head turned on one side, and then 

 as many more with his head on the other side 

 just as a carpenter chisels, cutting out a wedge 

 instead of going straight down. After working 



