RED-HEADED WOODPECKER 



35 



and to return in a few days to find them flowing, 

 or possibly inhabited by insects which he finds 

 edible. Many creatures come to drink at the tiny 

 sap-wells when he has thus drilled through the 

 bark; not only insects, but 

 certain smaller birds, and 

 even squirrels. The latter j\ 

 are said sometimes to be- 

 come oddly intoxicated on 

 the sweet juices fermented 

 by the sun. 



The Sapsucker's voice is 

 not pleasant, being louder 

 and harsher than that of 

 the Downy and Hairy Wood- 

 peckers ' ; his notes are 

 somewhat like the scream of 

 the Jay. The nest is usu- 

 ally high off the ground in a 

 cavity in a tree about as large as that of the 

 Hairy Woodpecker. Sapsuckers do not nest so 

 early as the great handsome Pileated birds, but 

 the eggs are nearly twice as many, laid in May, 

 after the warm weather has really come. 



EED-HEADED WOODPECKER 



On the hill where I live are five different 

 kinds of Woodpeckers : the Downy, the Hairy, 

 the Bedhead, the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, and 



YELLOW-BELLIED 



SAPSUCKER 



Length &y 2 inches 



