Concord, Mass.
1910.
Oct. 11
[October 11, 1910]

  Cloudless and warm with fresh S. W. [southwest] wind. A delightful day.
  As Purdie & I were strolling through the orchard at the Farm
early this afternoon a Sapsucker started from an apple tree over our
heads & flew into a large oak. Presently it returned and resumed 
a task which we had evidently interrupted viz. that of completing a 
ring of holes in the bark of the apple tree. Standing within 15 feet
of it I saw it drill two fresh holes. This it did very quickly 
first striking its bill forcibly through the bark in the same place
two or three times and then dragging out shreds of the cambium layer
until the hole looked deep & round. I could not see that it ate 
any of the bark or sipped any of the sap if, indeed, any flowed of
which I saw no sign. As soon as the first hole was completed it
began the second. There were eight or ten holes at least, all fresh
looking evenly spread and extending in a circle around the main
stem of the tree where it was perhaps 12 inches in diameter yet
still encased in rather smooth bark. The holes seemed to be