15 



cuts taken from the same magazine, and crediting C. K. Reed 

 with the authorship of the article as it appeared in the biennial 

 report. This was a very natural mistake, as the name of 

 Charles K. Reed the publisher appeared prominently on the 

 cover of each number of the magazine. 



The assertion regarding the habits of the Downy Woodpecker 

 quoted above, and written by Chester A. Reed, appeared first 

 in American Ornithology, Vol. VI, No. 2, February, 1906, page 

 39, under the heading "Yellow-bellied Sapsucker," and was 

 written to show that the Downy Woodpecker was responsible 

 for a part, at least, of the lines of pits ordinarily seen on fruit 

 trees in Worcester County, Massachusetts, and generally at- 

 tributed to the Yellow-belhed Sapsucker. This is the first, 

 definite statement recording actual observation of this habit 

 in the Downy Woodpecker that I have been able to dis- 

 cover. 



Now for the evidence of eyewitnesses that the Downy and 

 other Woodpeckers take both sap and cambium. In the " Food 

 of Woodpeckers of the United States," by Professor F. E. L. 

 Beal, the stomach contents of 3,453 Woodpeckers, including 

 sixteen species, were recorded. Professor Beal reported that 

 nearly all members of the Woodpecker family ate some cam- 

 bium.^ The quantity found in the stomachs of Sapsuckers, 

 however, is apparently much greater than that found in other 

 species. There seems to be little evidence available about 

 other Woodpeckters, regarding the habit of taking sap, but in 

 1873 Mr. C. A. White wrote as follows: — 



Upon the Iowa University campus we have a number of grand old 

 aboriginal oaks, a favorite resort for red-headed woodpeckers (Melanerpes 

 erythrocephalus). Among the young and growing trees that have been 

 transplanted upon the campus are some sugar maples {Acer saccharinum) 

 the bodies of which are 6 to 8 inches in diameter. Seeing the wood- 

 peckers busily tapping upon them, I examined the trunks and found 

 them perfectly sound, but the birds had pierced many holes of the usual 

 size through the bark and into the cambium layer, where they stopped. 

 The sap was flowing freely from the holes, and, watching the movements 

 of the birds afterwards upon the trees, I became convinced that they 

 were sucking the sap and that they had pecked the holes for the purpose 

 of obtaining it.^ 



' United States Department of Agriculture, Biological Survey, Bulletin No. 37, 1911, p. 11. 

 2 American NaturaUst, 1873, Vol. VII, p. 496. 



