THE WOODPECKERS, KINGFISHERS, AND CUCKOOS. 191 



hornets would attempt, often successfully, to chase it away. 

 But they did not interfere with the proprietors of the saccha- 

 rine establishment. 



These sapsuckers seem to have surprisingly little choice in 

 the trees selected to supply their food ; besides the English 

 white birch, they puncture the common birch, sugar-maple, 

 pignut-hickory, pine, apple, white beech, and probably many 

 other trees. Mr. A. W. Butler, the well-known Indiana or- 

 nithologist, writes concerning this species: "They do great 

 damage in spring to fruit- and shade-trees, especially the sugar- 

 maple. They perforate the bark with holes arranged in bands 

 on spirals about the trunk of the tree or larger limbs, from 

 which the sap sometimes flows in streams. I have counted 

 six of these birds on a dozen sugar-maples in front of one lot 

 in my own town. In winter they are especially severe on 

 coniferous trees. Norway pines in my yard have been girdled 

 until they became puny, sickly trees and were cut down." 

 Mr. Butler further reports that a friend, spending a day in 

 the woods, " was attracted by the actions of a yellow-bellied 

 woodpecker which had tapped a young tree near its top. It 

 would sip the sap and then wait for it to collect and feed 

 again. This was continued for several hours. The observer 

 watched until five in the afternoon and left the woodpecker 

 just where he first saw it. It had not moved more than a 

 yard from the hole in the entire seven hours." The young 

 of this species seem to be fed with both sap and insects. 



There is no doubt that this species is undeserving of en- 

 couragement, and when it appears to be injuring valuable 

 trees it should be shot. The fruit-grower, however, should be 

 sure that the birds in his orchard are not of the other species, 

 which are highly beneficial and deserving of protection. 



THE KINGFISHER. 



The northern United States have but one representative 

 of the interesting family of kingfishers (Alcedinidce). This is 



