16 WOODPECKERS IN RELATION" TO TREES. 



It is sometimes practicable to prevent damage by woodpeckers by 

 covering objects with tin. This does not apply to buildings, of course, 

 and when injury continues despite nest boxes and other protective 

 devices more strenuous action is permissible. Do not try to kill the 

 offenders by putting out poisoned food or water, for you will kill 

 more friends than enemies. Some States properly permit the shoot- 

 ing of birds by the owners of premises that are manifestly being 

 damaged. Shooting should be allowed only when actual damage is 

 being done and then only under supervision of a proper authority. 



DAMAGE BY SAPSUCKERS. 

 DISTRIBUTION AND HABITS OF SAPSUCKERS. 



Many woodpeckers are commonly termed sapsuckers, but there 

 are only three species properly so called : The yellow-bellied sapsucker 

 (SpJiyrapicus varius) (PL I), the red-breasted sapsucker (SpJiyrapicus 

 ruber) (PL I), and the Williamson sapsucker (Spliyrapicus thyroideus) 

 (PL II). The yellow-bellied sapsucker (known also as red-throated 

 sapsucker, squealing woodpecker, and whining woodpecker) together 

 with its western form, the red-naped sapsucker (SpJiyrapicus varius 

 nuchalis), ranges over practically the whole of North America up to 60° 

 north latitude, breeding from the northern limits of the range south to 

 Massachusetts, Indiana, Colorado, and throughout the Rocky Moun- 

 tain region, and migrating over the remainder of the continent as 

 far as the West Indies and Central America. It sometimes winters 

 as far north as the southern boundary of the breeding area. The 

 red-breasted sapsucker, locally called the red-headed woodpecker, 

 nests from northern Lower California through the Sierra and Cascade 

 Mountain Ranges to southern Alaska, withdrawing in winter to that 

 part of its range south of middle California. The Williamson sap- 

 sucker, the male of which was long known as the black-breasted and 

 the female as the brown-headed woodpecker, occupies in summer the 

 higher parts of the country from the eastern slopes of the Rocky 

 Mountains to the Pacific coast, from Arizona and New Mexico to 

 southern British Columbia, and winters from Texas and southern 

 California south through the greater part of Mexico. 



The sapsuckers are a distinctly marked group of woodpeckers and 

 are held by some authorities to constitute a separate subfamily. 

 Most woodpeckers have long tongues which can be thrust far out of 

 the beak and which are armed at the tip with backward projecting 

 spines (fig. 3), enabling the birds to secure their insect prey although 

 deeply buried in wood. The sapsuckers, on the contrary, have short, 

 practically nonextensible tongues, furnished with a fringe of stiff 

 hairs (fig. 4), not adapted to the capture of wood-boring insects. 



