21 



venient hiding places, and are thus readily found by the 

 " sagacious Woodpeckers." 



Recently, Mr. A. A. Cross of Huntington, Massachusetts, 

 wrote that Mr. William J. Trudell of that town had seen a 

 Downy Woodpecker in the act of making a row of holes in 

 the bark of an apple tree. In response to an inquiry Mr. 

 Trudell sent the following : — 



On November 13, 1920, while rabbit hunting, I came into a small 

 apple orchard on the Russell watershed, known as the Ritch Farm. I 

 was standing under one of the apple trees waiting for a sign of game, 

 when I heard a Woodpecker at work over my head. I took my glasses 

 and saw it was a Downy. It was about 8 feet from me and I plainly saw 

 it make a series of round holes horizontally on the limb, and I am positive 

 it was making the original holes and not opening up old holes. I am not 

 sure whether the bird was securing food, but I think it was, as there is no 

 sap in the tree as late as that. 



The Sapsucker does not always follow any definite plan in 

 making these perforations. Sometimes they are spotted over 

 a tree like a charge of buckshot. The Downy Woodpecker also 

 sometimes makes these pits in a very haphazard manner. In 

 a recent letter from Mr. R. A. Gilliam of Dallas, Texas, there 

 appears the following : — 



December 5, 1920, I saw two Downy Woodpeckers on the stem of a 

 honey locust, just below where the first Umbs branch off, industriously 

 boring into what I knew, even without a glass, was perfectly good bark. 

 They kept at this for at least twenty minutes before I was compelled to 

 disturb them. I found they were going entirely through the cambium, 

 the incisions or holes being about one-eighth inch in diameter, and pos- 

 sibly one-fourth inch apart up and down the tree, then one would start 

 another run about one-fourth inch to the side. 



Apparently these incisions were made in a vertical line, as 

 was the case once with a Sapsucker watched by Frank Bolles.^ 

 The main point in the observation, however, is that they were 

 made in sound bark. Two correspondents assert that the 

 Hairy Woodpecker also is responsible for the rings of punctures 

 that appear on apple trees, but do not say that they have 

 actually seen the bird make such pits. 



1 Auk, July, 1891, Vol. VIII, No. 31, p. 258. 



