THE YELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUOKEE. 85 



dant, it becomes a nuisance, and materially injures, and eventually kills, many 

 such trees. Indirectly it also causes the death of many a Hairy and Downy 

 Woodpecker (the best friends the fruit gi-ower has), these species being fre- 

 quently shot through ignorance of their habits or because they are mistaken for 

 Sapsuckers. Besides puncturing apple trees, it is also partial to the thorn apple, 

 elm, white and yellow birch, red and sugar maple, poplar, red oak, hemlock, 

 white and mountain ash, and several species of pines. That it shotild be fond 

 of the sweet sap of trees does not surprise me, as this contains considerable 

 nourishment, and likewise attracts a good many insects, which the birds eat ; but 

 it is not so easy to account for its especial predilection for the sap of the moun- 

 tain ash, which has a decidedly bitter taste, and I believe possesses intoxicating 

 properties, unless it be taken for the latter purpose ; and the fact that after drink- 

 ing freely of the sap of this tree it may often be seen clinging to the trunk for 

 hours at a time, as if stupefied, seems to confirm this view. It is well known 

 that some of our birds indulge in such disreputable practices, and possibly 

 this species must be included in the number, as there are sots among birds as 

 well as among the genus Homo. Aside from sap, the soft inner bark of trees, 

 and the various insects already mentioned, it feeds to a considerable extent 

 on berries of different kinds, such as those of the sour gum, dogwood, frost 

 grapes, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, and blackben-ies, as well as occa- 

 sionally, when hard pressed by hunger, on nuts, acorns, and sometimes even on 

 Indian com. 



Mr. Otto Widmann, of Old Orchard, Missouri, has kindly furnished me with 

 the following notes, as observed by him in that vicinity: "They are unobtrusive 

 and rather sluggish birds, quite unlike the Hairy and Downy ^Woodpeckers. 

 They may be seen sitting for half an hour at a time in the same place, sometimes 

 crosswise on a branch. During a late wintry spell, when a freezing rain had 

 enveloped everything in a sheet of ice, a Sapsucker hugged a piece of bacon 

 hung up in a tree for two whole days. While the Downy and Hairy never get 

 tired of eating nuts, the Sapsucker uses them only when hard pressed by hunger, 

 and after his return in February he spends his whole time puncturing the pines. 

 His favorite tree among our ornamental evergreens is the Austrian pine, his 

 second choice is the Scotch pine, while he never taps the white pine and Norway 

 spruce. Of deciduous trees he occasionally punctures the shell-bark hickory, 

 sugar maple, and crab apple; this, however, is not done to any great extent. 



"The trunks and larger limbs of the Austrian and Scotch pines look very 

 badly at times, but, strange to say, though they are not only girdled, but in 

 some places compactly covered with holes, the trees thrive as though they had 

 not been hurt by the perforations and loss of sap. This sap has no terebinthine 

 taste, but is as sweet and pure in flavor as that of a deciduous plant; but the 

 exudations of resin, the secondary result of the Sapsucker's labors, mar the 

 appearance of these trees by running down its sides or hardening into unsightly 

 lumps. Many of the birds remain in southern Missouri during winter." 



