244 THE HUMAN SIDE OF BIRDS 



and this is done in a most business-like way: he 

 chisels out holes in live trees, and insects and beetles 

 come there to deposit their eggs. This just suits 

 Downy, and as soon as the grubs begin to hatch. 

 Downy pierces them with his tiny sharp tongue and 

 takes them to his babes in the hollow-hole in the 

 tall pine-tree. 



Downy has a northern cousin who goes south in 

 October to visit him. His name is yellow-bellied 

 sapsucker, and he is the little fellow who girdled 

 your apple-tree last spring by pecking myriads of 

 tiny holes in it that he might drink the delicious 

 sap. He is fond of several kinds of drinks: the 

 sap of the apple-tree, the juice of the sugar-maple, 

 and, like many actors, he must have his wine — ^this 

 he gets from the juice of the hemlock. The sap- 

 sucker often returns to a tree which he has girdled 

 for wines, and finds a number of little creatures who 

 have gone there to drink and have got their tiny 

 feet fastened by the sticky sap. Mr. Sapsucker 

 eats every insect within reach, and tries to catch 

 others flying near. Unlike his cousin Downy, he 

 never digs into dead wood for insects. His tongue 

 is not long and sharp enough to reach into the holes 

 and spear them; for the end of it is more like a 

 soft mop or brush, and he can thus use it to better 



