248 REPORT OF THE FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 



It is unfortunate that the flesh of the flicker is very palatable, so that in 

 many places they are considered as a game bird, and slaughtered accordingly. 

 When the wild black cherries {Priinas serotind) are ripe, they form a favorite food 

 for the flickers, as well as for many other birds, and at such times they are so 

 busy in the cherry trees that they seem to lose their customary shyness, and are 

 easily approached and shot. Eefore the game laws were made so stringent, 

 thousands of flickers were annualy shot for food in the northeastern portion of the 

 country during the last of August and September. This is now to some extent 

 prevented, and should be wholly suppressed. 



The Yellow-bellied Woodpecker, or Sapsucker. 



This species is probably the most migratory of all our woodpeckers. In the 

 United States it breeds only in the most northerly parts, and in some of the 

 mountains farther south. In the fall it ranges southward, and in the winter is 

 found in most of the Gulf States and beyond. It is not so generally distributed 

 as most of the other species, being quite unknown in some districts, while it is 

 very abundant in others. Dr. C. Hart Merriam states that in the Adirondack 

 region during migration it outnumbers all other species of the family together, 

 and in summer is second in numbers only to the hairy woodpecker. At Mount 

 Chocorua, in New Hampshire, Mr. Frank Bolles found it the most abundant 

 species. In Minnesota, also, it is very common, while on the other hand in 

 Massachusetts and Iowa it is comparatively rare. 



It is to this species that the term "sapsucker" is most often and most justly 

 applied, for it drills holes in the bark of certain trees and drinks the sap. It 

 also feeds on cambium, insects, wild fruit and berries. 



In writing of the woodpeckers of this species in northern New York, in 1878, 

 Dr. Merriam states: 



"They really do considerable mischief by drilling holes in the bark of apple, 

 thorn apple and mountain ash trees in such a way as to form girdles of punctures,, 

 sometimes 2 feet or more in breadth (up and down) about the trunks and branches. 

 * * * The holes, which are sometimes merely single punctures, and some- 

 times squarish spaces (multiple punctures) nearly half an inch across, are placed 

 so near together that not unfrequently they cover more of the tree than the 

 remaining bark.. Hence, more than half of the bark is sometimes removed from 

 the girdled portions, and the balance often dries up and comes off. Therefore it 

 is not surprising that trees which have been extensively girdled generally die, 

 and mountain ash are much more prone to do so than either aople or thorn apple 



