LAND BIRDS. 359 
or third year of use; that the total damage done by them is too insignificant 
to justify their persecution in well wooded regions” (Auk, II, 1885, 270). 
Aside from the sap and bark eaten the bird has a varied diet. Highty- 
one stomachs examined and reported on by Professor Beal, of the U. 8. De- 
partment of Agriculture, show that the food consisted of animal and vege- 
table matter in exactly equalamounts. Forty-eight per cent of the food con- 
sisted of insects, of which 36 percent was ants, 5 percent beetles, 2 percent 
caterpillars, 3 percent flies, 1 percent grasshoppers, and 1 percent plant- 
lice. The remaining 2 percent of animal matter was made up of spiders 
and myriapods. The insect food thus consumed is, however, of slight 
economic importance, from the fact that the ants are themselves of un- 
certain value and the other forms because they are taken in such small 
amounts. Undoubtedly some little good is done by the consumption of 
caterpillars and plant lice, but the amount must be very slight. On the 
other hand, about one-half of the vegetable food (23 percent of the whole 
food) consisted of the inner bark of various trees, while most of the re- 
mainder of the vegetable food was fruit. The fruits taken, however, with 
the possible exception of.some of the blackberries and raspberries, were all 
wild fruits, and their consumption caused no loss to the fruit grower, It 
is worthy of mention that only one stomach among the 81 examined con- 
tained any seeds of the poisonous sumac, which is exceptional among the 
woodpeckers, these birds as a rule being industrious planters of these 
baleful seeds. 
Probably this species of woodpecker, oftener than any other, excavates 
its nesting hole in the trunk or branch of a sound and living tree. This is 
by no means its universal custom, since nests are often found in dead wood, 
but it frequently uses the living tree. It begins to nest about the first of 
May, and digs a hole from eight to eighteen inches deep, the entrance being 
perfectly circular and about one and one-half inches in diameter. The eggs 
are from five to seven, and are laid, like those of most woodpeckers, on the 
chips at the bottom of the hole, without any nesting material. They are 
pure white, glossy, without spots, and average .86 by .66 inches. 
A nest taken by Jerome Trombley, of Petersburg, Monroe county, Mich., 
was twenty-five feet up in a small basswood stub, near the edge of the woods. 
It was ten inches in depth and contained five fresh eggs on May 25, 1880. 
Another nest, of four fresh eggs, was found at Goodrich, Genesee county 
May 19, 1887, and on Grand Island, Lake Superior, Mr. E. A. Doolittle 
found several nests containing young the last week in June, 1906. Accord- 
ing to Mr. Dunham it is a common summer resident in Kalkaska county, 
and breeds. On the other hand, Mr. Newell A. Eddy, of Bay City, states 
that from records extending over twenty years he finds nothing that 
would indicate that it breeds in that locality. 
In regard to its notes Mr. Bicknell states: ‘Perhaps at the time it passes, 
April [Hudson Valley], it is not ready to begin courtship, and drumming, 
which, as with other woodpeckers, in a measure takes the place of song, 
is deferred until the birds are ready to seek their mates. I have never 
known this woodpecker to drum in autumn. At that season it seems 
especially reserved.” In the vicinity of the Agricultural College the 
Sapsucker drums freely in April and May, after which time it seems to 
disappear and we have never found it nesting here. At Locke, however, 
in the same county, Dr. Atkins found it a common summer resident and 
nesting; it has also been reported in summer from the southeastern part 
of this county. 
