THE STELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUCKER. 85 



dant, it becomes a nuisance, and materially injures, and eventually kills, many 

 such trees. Indirectly it also causes the death of many a Hairy and Downy 

 Woodpecker (the best friends the fruit grower has), these species being fre- 

 quently shot through ignorance of their habits or because they are mistaken for 

 Sapsuckers. Besides puncturing apple trees, it is also partial to the thorn apple, 

 elm, white and yellow birch, vn\ and sugar maple, poplar, red <>;ik, hemlock, 

 white and mountain ash, and several species of pines. That it should be fond 

 of the sweet sap of trees dues not surprise me, as tliis contains considerable 

 nourishment, and likewise attracts a good many insects, which the birds eat; bul 



it is not so easy to account for its especial predilection for the sap of the m- 



tain ash, which has a. decidedly hitter taste, and I believe possesses intoxicating 

 properties, unless it be taken lor the latter purpose; and the lad that after drink- 

 ing' freely of the sap of this tree it may often lie seen clinging to the trunk for 

 hours at a, time, as if stupelied, seems to confirm this view. It is well known 



that some of our birds indulge in such disreputable practices, ami possibly 

 this species must he included iii the number, as there are sots among birds as 



well as among the genus Homo. Aside frOm sap, the soft inner hark of trees, 

 and the various insects already mentioned, it feeds to a considerable extent 



on berries of different kinds, such as those of the sour gum, dogwood, frost 

 grapes, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, and blackberries, as well as occa- 

 sionally, when hard pressed by hunger, on nuts, acorns, and sometimes even on 

 Indian corn. 



Mr. Otto Widmann, of Old Orchard, Missouri, has kindly furnished me with 

 the following notes, as observed by him iii that vicinity: "They are unobtrusive 

 and rather sluggish birds, quite unlike the Hairy and Downy Woodpeckers. 

 They may be seen sitting for half an hour at a. time in the same place, sometimes 

 crosswise on a branch. During a. late wintry spell, when a, freezing rain had 

 enveloped everything in a, sheet, of ice, a Sapsucker hugged a piece of bacon 

 hung up in a tree for two whole days. While tin; Downy and Hairy never get 

 tired of eating nuts, the Sapsucker uses them only when hard pressed by hunger, 

 and after his return in February he spends his whole time puncturing the pines. 

 His favorite tree among our ornamental evergreens is the Austrian pine, his 

 second choice is tin; Scotch pine, while he never taps the white pine and Norway 

 spruce. Of deciduous trees he occasionally punctures the shell-hark hickory, 

 sugar maple, and crab apple; this, however, is not done to any great extent. 



"The trunks and larger limbs of the Austrian and Scotch pines look very 

 badly at times, but, strange to say, though they are not only girdled, hut in 

 some places compactly covered with holes, the trees thrive as though they had 

 not been hurt by the perforations and loss of sap. This sap has no terebinthine 

 taste, but is as sweet and pure in flavor as that of a, deciduous plant; but the 

 exudations of resin, the secondary result of the Sapsucker's labors, mar tin; 

 appearance of these trees by running down its sides or hardening into unsightly 

 lumps. Many of the birds remain in southern Missouri during winter." 



