166 BIRDS OF ALABAMA 



recorded as breeding at Greensboro, Autaugaville (June 4), 

 Sand Mountain (Jackson County), Wilsonville, Woodbine, 

 Ardell, Dean (1,200 feet altitude), Seale, Hayneville, Castle- 

 berry, Dothan, and Bayou Labatre. McCormack has found it 

 only once at Leighton, March 24, 1890, when one was collected 

 from a pair on La Grange Mountain. 



The breeding season begins about the last of April and con- 

 tinues till June; Golsan records a set of eggs taken at Pratt- 

 ville, June 4, 1895. 



General habits. — This woodpecker is about the size of the 

 hairy and somewhat resembles it in appearance, but it is a 

 more noisy and conspicuous bird. It has a decided preference 

 for pine timber and is rarely found in any other habitat. The 

 birds are almost constantly in motion as they rapidly ascend 

 the trunks of the trees in spirals, or fly from tree to tree, 

 uttering continually their nasal, querulous notes. They are 

 somewhat gregarious, several pairs often being found near 

 together. 



The nests are excavated usually in the trunk of a living pine, 

 one having a dead heart being always selected. Wayne states 

 that the bird uses the same tree from year to year, sometimes 

 boring as many as eight holes in one tree.f The entrance hole 

 is from 20 to 70 feet, usually under 35 feet, from the ground. 



Food habits. — The food consists mainly of insects and seeds. 

 The insects most frequently taken are ants and the larvae of 

 wood-boring beetles, with the addition of grasshoppers, 

 crickets, caterpillars and spiders. The vegetable food con- 

 sists of mast (chiefly pine seeds) and seeds of magnolia, bay- 

 berry, and poison ivy. This species is not known to frequent 

 orchards or cultivated land, and by reason of its destruction 

 of ants and wood-boring beetles, is considered beneficial.^ 



YELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUCKER: Sphyrapicus varius 

 varius (Linnaeus). 



Stcute records: — The yellow-bellied sapsucker (fig. 8) is a 

 common migrant and winter resident from the last of Septem- 

 ber to the last of March. It is recorded as occurring through- 



fWayne, A. T., Birds of South Carolina, pp. 89-90, 1910. 



jSee Farmers' Ball. 755, 17. S. Dept. Aer., pp. 34-85, repr. 1918. 



