The Red-breasted Sapsuckers 
seasons, these operations will sometimes cause a tree to bleed fatally, or 
at least to fall easy victim to insect pests. I have myself seen limbs of 
mountain ash trees, pear trees, and English walnut, done to death in this 
fashion. Yet it is only fair to say that but one or two trees in an orchard 
may be attacked, and that there is scarcely more danger of the trouble 
spreading than there would be from successive strokes of lightning. 
That this same moderation is shown in the bird’s native haunts is 
testified to by Dr. Grinnell in his San Bernardino report: “Near Bluff 
Lake a species of willow (. Salix bigelovii ) grows in good-sized clumps 
around the numerous cienagas, and these willows seem to offer especial 
attraction to the sapsuckers. But, curiously enough, the attentions of 
the birds are confined to a single clump in a locality and not distributed 
among many. * * * This single willow clump, among dozens of 
other unaffected ones at the end of the cienaga, was rendered conspicuous 
by all of its upper branches and stalks, above two to four feet from the 
ground, being dead, with the bark weathered off and the stems left bare 
and shining. This clump must have been worked upon for at least three 
years; for on several of the trunks, which were from three to five inches in 
diameter, there were three zones of borings, the latest one lowest. Just 
below each of these girdlings was a ring of sprouts.” 
For the rest, Sphyrapicus ruber is a large consumer of ants, and does 
some good in the destruction of leaf-eating beetles. Berries of the pepper 
trees ( Schinus molle) are eaten to some extent, in winter, as are also, 
regrettably, seeds of the poison oak. 
There! the sordid business is over, of discussing a brother’s faults. 
We will hie us back to the consideration of the bird itself, Das lvuebsclie 
Ding an sich. We shall not hear their cry unless we are rude enough to 
threaten their nest. Then, it may be, we shall hear a petulant kee a, like 
that of 5. varius, or, more rarely, a high, strong quee oo, which will remind 
us of the Red-headed Woodpecker ( Melanerpes erythrocephalus). S. ruber 
has, however, a much more satisfactory way—to him—of publishing his 
presence. Perching on the tip of some resonant, dry limb, he beats 
tattoo by the hour, and mocks, or challenges thereby, half a dozen neigh¬ 
bors. The rhythm of this tattoo is doubtless of significance to the initiate. 
At least it is characteristic of the species. I give two such Ruber codes for 
what they are worth: - - - - -, - - 
- - - -; and again, - -- -- - - -- ------ --- 
Major Bendire was one of the warmest friends this Sapsucker ever 
had; and a paragraph from his essay 1 is de rigueur: 
1 Appearing first in “The Auk,” Vol. V., July, 1888 (p. 231), and later in “Life Histories," Vol. I., p. 94. 
