SONGLESS BIRDS OF ORUHARD AND WOODLAND. 257 
not care to take any food but the sap. I could get within six feet of 
the bird without any trouble while it was taking sap. It then left and 
went into a large tree, and I lost it; but if I had stayed by the tree I 
think it would have come back before night, as it had done when I was 
watching it, for it was gone half an hour at one time. 
The two young trees that were tapped were red maples 
(Acer rubrum). The incisions in each case were similar, 
and from their appearance we may as- 
sume that the bird first struck its bill 
into the bark from the right upward, 
and then from 
the left down- 
ward, leaving a 
small bridge of 
bark to cover 
the opening. 
It then took 
the sap by in- 
serting its bill 
at the lower 
orifice, a, the 
upper one, 0, 
allowing the 
free entrance of 
air to facilitate 
the flow of the 
sap out of the 
lower at a. 
The vegetable 
food of this 
Woodpecker 
is varied and 
rather small in 
quantity. In as 
spring it eats a Pig. 115. Fig. 116. 
few buds and petals of flowers; some berries, such as June- 
berries and wild strawberries, in summer; and in fall and 
winter it eats pokeberries, poison ivy, sumac, mullein, and 
other seeds. Frozen apples are eaten in winter. According 
a S See 
Fae 
a 
ae 
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