28 FOOD OF WOODPECKERS OF UNITED STATES. 



In writing of the habits of these woodpeckers 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, some- 

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

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

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

 together that not infrequently 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 apple or thornapple trees, due, very likely, to their 

 more slender stems. 1 



The late Frank Bolles has published some interesting detailed 

 observations respecting the food habits of the sapsucker. His 

 conclusions are: 



That the yellow-bellied woodpecker is in the habit for successive years of drill- 

 ing the canoe birch, red maple, red oak, white ash, and probably other trees, for the 

 purpose of taking from them the elaborated sap, and in some cases parts of the cam- 

 bium layer; that the birds consume the sap in large quantities for its own sake and 

 not for insect matter which such sap may chance occasionally to contain; that the 

 sap attracts many insects of various species, a few of which form a considerable part 

 of the food of this bird, but whose capture does not occupy its time to anything like 

 the extent to which sap drinking occupies it; * * * that the forest trees attacked 

 by them generally die, possibly in the second or third year of use. 2 



Mr. Bolles shot 8 sapsuckers in July and August, 1890. Their 

 stomachs "were well filled with insects." Some of these were 

 examined by Mr. Samuel H. Scudder, who states: 



The insects in the different stomachs are in all cases almost exclusively composed of 

 the harder chitinous parts of ants. In a cursory examination I find little else, though 

 one or two beetles are represented, and No. 4 must have swallowed an entire wasp of 

 the largest size, his head and wings attesting thereto. 3 



Mr. Bolles proved by experiment that concentrated sap (saturated 

 with sugar) is not sufficient to sustain life, even with the addition of 

 a small percentage of insects. The logical inference is that sap, 

 while liked by the birds and consumed in large quantities, holds a 

 subordinate place as an article of food. 



J. Maurice Thompson says of the sapsucker: 



Its food is sap or juices of green trees. It eats nothing else. * * * The principal 

 trees from which it obtains its food are the maples, hickories, cedar, apple, pear, 

 southern pine, and swamp ash. 4 



In speaking of this species Dr. Hopkins mentions the finding of 

 a small pitch pine tree that had recently died from injuries by wood- 

 peckers. The bird evidently attacks the healthy tree for the sole 



i Bull. Nuttall Ornith. Club, IV, 3-5, January, 1879. 



2 Auk, VIII, 270, July, 1891. 



s Auk, VIII, 269, July, 1891. 



* Appleton's Journal, VIII, 631, Dec. 7, 1872. 



