THE PINE INVESTIGATION. 



355 



repel them and thus save our forests in the future from destructive inva- 

 sions of bark beetles." * * * 



OBSERVATIONS IN THE TIBBS RUN FOREST, MONONGALIA COUNTY. 



This forest was visited on Sept. 24th, but no timber was found 

 dying and no features observed worthy of mention here, except 

 perhaps, the finding of a 

 small pitch pine tree that 

 had recently died from the 

 attack of woodpeckers. In- 

 stead of the bird looking for 

 insects, as is the habit of 

 woodpeckers in general, it 

 had evidently made the at- 

 tack on the healthy tree for 

 the sole purpose of feeding 

 on the inner bark. Thus, in- 

 stead of destroying insects, 

 it had made the conditions 

 favorable for the attack of 

 bark beetles and other in- 

 sects which had bred in the 

 bark and wood in consider- 

 able numbers. In antici- 

 pation of some one think- 

 ing that it was the inten- 

 tion of the woodpecker to 

 thus trap the insects and 

 come back and collect 

 them, I would say that at 

 the time the observations 

 were made, the insects had 

 not been molested, and 

 further, the injury done 



Fig. XL VI. Work of woodpeckers in young 

 pitch pine. Tree died from injury. 



was evedently by the yellow bellied woodpecker or sapsucker, 

 which prefers to feed upon the sap and inner bark of living 

 trees and seldom, if ever, searches for insects in dead trees 



