THE OOLOG1ST 



87 



fine windbreak of Austrian Pines on 

 the west side of his house. These prov- 

 ed especially attractive to the Yellow- 

 bellied Sapsucker. Every spring and 

 fall from one to several individuals 

 would make an extended stay around 

 this row of pines. It was placed on 

 the line between the dooryard and small 

 fruit garden and a fine young orchard 

 of apple trees then about 15 years old 

 and very thrifty. As opportunity per- 

 mitted I studied the habits of these 

 birds carefully. They seldom bored 

 any holes in the apple trees. The orch- 

 ard stands today in fine condition and 

 the few rings of holes they drilled can 

 be still detected by the scars. 



But every pine tree was perforated 

 with many rings of the sligntly oval 

 holes in nearby parallel rows and of 

 nearly uniform depth. Just deep 

 enough to secure a free flow of sap. 



If they drank any sap I failed to note 

 it. And would the mixture of turpen- 

 tine , rosin, etc., constituting pine sap 

 be apt to prove a palatable and nourish- 

 ing diet? 



But for some reason these pines were 

 attractive to the ants, whether they 

 relished the sap or were attracted in 

 some other way I failed to satisfy my- 

 self. There were many of the elevated 

 nest hummocks of the common black 

 ant all along the sod border beyond the 

 tips of the tree limbs and they were 

 always crawling up and down the 

 trunks. 



Whether these ants fed on the sap 

 that exuded from the birds perfora- 

 tions or not, they were, at least, at- 

 tracted to it and as it dried a little it 

 became sticky enough to annoy them 

 and retard their movements. 



Now the birds did all their drilling in 

 a few short intervals during the day 

 but returned often to the trees and 

 spent much time running up and down 

 the trunks of the trees. 



I only examined two stomachs but 

 found the contents to be mostly ants. 



In Prof. Surface's quotation from Dr. 

 Merriam I read in regard to their food. 

 "Eighty-one stomachs were examined 

 and of the whole 36 per cent, consisted 

 of ants." 



Now I believed at the time that the 

 birds selected these pines because the 

 ants \rere there in numbers and were 

 at least retarded by the sticky sap if 

 not attracted to it also. 



Dr. Trimble admits that "Ants are 

 certainly found sometimes about these 

 holes and apparently attracted by the 

 sap" and I do not believe that his as- 

 sertion that these "holes beingd esigned 

 for this purpose is a palpable exaggera- 

 tion of the reasoning power" is suf- 

 ficienty proven. 



I have positively proven that the 

 American Crow, when searching for 

 "Cut worms" in a corn field, learns 

 that the grubs congregate in or close 

 to the young hills of corn and digs the 

 dirt away from the hills in search of 

 them. 



In many cases the growing corn is 

 not uprooted nor even the kernel taken 

 from the roots and I have seen entire 

 hills dug out and the kernels left to dry 

 in the sun for a well fed crow evidently 

 prefers "cut worms" to softened corn. 

 Of course I dont' know that the bird 

 had located a grub every time. I sus- 

 pect not as the hills will often be ex- 

 amined continuously. But they have 

 evidently reasoned out from experience 

 that the grubs can be found there as 

 they make no attempt to procure them 

 from beneath the surface until the corn 

 appears. Now ! would the assumption 

 that the Sapsucker (so called, I believe 

 with Dr. Trimble, that "they should 

 be called woodpeckers") drills the holes 

 for the main purpose of attracting and 

 securing insect food, mostly ants, im- 

 pute to the bird any greater reasoning 

 power, or nearly as great, as that I 

 know the Crow must possess. 



I allow that both birds undoubtedly 

 made the first discovery by accident 



