13 



this species [Yellow-bellied Sapsucker], especially in the West, where 

 it is so numerous. That it is, from this habit, often greatly injurious 

 to fruit trees is not to be denied, but that this species — now com- 

 monly called the "true sapsucker", to whose depredations it is said 

 should be assigned the general iU repute attached to the whole family 

 by most agriculturists — is the sole author of this work, which so 

 often amounts to mischief, there is abundant evidence to disprove. 

 In most parts of Massachusetts, particularly in the Connecticut valley, 

 this species is so extremely rare that I have never seen more than half 

 a dozen specimens in a year, and oftener none at all, and then always 

 during its migrations; while other expert collectors have searched for it 

 unsuccessfully for years; yet our orchards always present these perfora- 

 tions in profusion, though seldom to an injurious degree; and now and 

 then a forest tree is observed so thoroughly girdled as to be thus destroyed. 

 For this our spotted woodpeckers, Picus pubescens and P. villosus, are 

 chargeable, being in many sections the sole authors of it; they may be, 

 in fact, very often seen engaged in it. I do not, however, suppose their 

 object to be the same as that assigned to the Sphyrapicus varius, that of 

 sucking sap or feeding on the inner bark.i 



Dr. Allen writes on December 8, 1920, that he cannot now 

 recall whether or not he actually saw either the Downy Wood- 

 pecker or the Hairy Woodpecker making these holes, and that 

 he has not now any manjuscript notes of his observations made 

 half a century ago, but that he has perfect confidence that 

 his statements as quoted above were based on thoroughly con- 

 vincing evidence. 



Minot, 1895, says of the Downy Woodpecker: — 



. . . they extract wood-borers and other insects from the wood. For 

 this purpose they dig out small circular holes of about the size made by 

 a large awl, and with these often encircle a large tree.^ 



Miss Blanchan says of the Downy Woodpecker (1899): — 



It has been surmised that he bores the little round holes close together 

 so often seen with the idea of attracting insects to the luscious sap. . . . 

 The Downy actually drills these holes in apple and other trees to feed 

 upon the milky inner bark of the tree, the cambium layer.' 



In American Ornithology (1903) Chester A. Reed makes the 

 following statement : — 



You have probably noticed rows of tiny holes extending nearly around 

 some apple trees. These are the work of the Downy in his search for the 



i Memoir, Boston Society of Natural History, 1869, Vol. I, p. 499. 



2 Minot, H. D.: The Land-Birds and Game-Birds of New England, 1895, p. 336. 



5 Blanchan, Neltje: Bird Neighbors, 1901, p. 56. 



