May 12, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



natural conditious in the wood, are caused 

 primarily by insects, birds and various other 

 agencies, which produce wounds in the cam- 

 bium of the living tree. When we are able to 

 identify these blemishes with the species of 

 bird or insect that caused them, they become 

 objects of interest. Certain bird's-eye and 

 curly effects are even more interesting, because 

 more pleasing to the eye, and the exact cause 

 is more obscure. 



The object of the studj' of woodpecker work 

 in living trees was to determine characters by 

 which the subsequent results from wounds 

 made by them in the living cambium could be 

 identified from those caused by insects and 

 other agencies; also to determine the relation 

 of the birds and their work to subsequent in- 

 juries by insects, or the reverse. 



The material collected by him during the 

 past fourteen years represents some forty 

 species of forest trees, of many genera and 

 families, and from widely different sections 

 of the country. 



It appears that the object of the sapsucker 

 working in the bark of living trees is to secure 

 both liquid and solid food from the sap, cam- 

 bium and bast, and not for the purpose of 

 collecting insects, or, at least, not primarily 

 for that purpose. 



The punctures in the bark vary in size, form 

 and arrangement, according to the species of 

 tree and the character of the food furnished. 

 In the pine, spruce, hemlock, juniper, and 

 probably in all conifers, the desirable sub- 

 stance is furnished by the living bast tissue 

 and cambium, while the wood yields resin 

 instead of sap, therefore the birds have no 

 occasion to piinctixre the outer wood-ring, and 

 very rarely do so, whereas in maple, walnut, 

 hickory and such trees as furnish at certain 

 times of the year a prolific flow of saccharine 

 sap from the sapwood, the outer ring of wood 

 is always punctured. In the former, the 

 wounds are usually broad, often connected, 

 and usually arranged in longitudinal rows, 

 while in the latter they are narrow, funnel- 

 shaped, rarely joining, and arranged in trans- 

 verse rows. 



The method of healing of these wounds is 

 quite variable, being influenced not only by 



the character of the wound, but by the species 

 or genus of trees in which they occur. 



The resulting defective or ornamental con- 

 ditions and subsequent annual layers of wood 

 also vary in character and economic impor- 

 tance with different kinds of trees and com- 

 mercial products. 



While the healed wounds made by the birds 

 cause a bird's-eye effect in the finished surface, 

 they are not responsible for all bird's-eye 

 wood. The small densely placed bird's-eye in 

 maple is not caused by birds, but appears to 

 be a character peculiar to certain individual 

 trees, while that resulting from the work of 

 birds is coarser, less distinctly defined, more 

 sparsely arranged, and the wood in which it 

 occurs usually shows small dark spots or 

 streaks where the original wound was made in 

 the living cambium. 



Specimens of blemishes, bird's-eye and 

 stained effects caused by birds and insects in 

 many kinds of wood were shown, together with 

 some forty stereopticon slides. 



Attention was called to the knotty walking 

 sticks, umbrella handles, crops, etc., which 

 represent an extensive industry, in which the 

 desired knotty effect is produced artificially 

 by making wounds with a sharp instrument in 

 the living bark and cambium of the growing 

 stem, which is left to grow one year and heal 

 the wounds before cutting the stick and re- 

 moving the bark. This result is similar to 

 that from a wound made by a sapsucker, 

 which may have suggested the idea. 



E. L. Morris, 

 Recording Secrctarij. 



51ICHIGAX ORXITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



The annual meeting of the Michigan Orni- 

 thological Club was held in the museum of 

 the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor on 

 April 1, 1905. A business meeting was held 

 in the forenoon in the curator's office. The 

 following officers were elected for 1905-6. 



President — Walter B. Barrows. 

 First Vice-President— A. H. Griffith. 

 Second Vice-President— James B. i^urdy. 

 Third Vice-Prcsidcnt—-T . Claire Wood. 

 Secrefarf/— Alexander W. Blain, Jr. 

 TreasMrer— Frederick C. Hubel. 



