32 
WOODPECKKHS IN RELATION TO TREES. 
(iiiAv BIBOB (Betula populifolia). — Department of Agriculture 
grounds. District of Columbia. 
White or canoe BIRCH [Betula alba). — This tree is frequently and 
seriously injured by sapsuckers (PI. V, fig. 2). Weed and Dearborn 
say that "hundreds of punctures" are "made in white birches" and 
Hopkins notes that thesapsucker injures or kills young trees. Bolles, 
in writing of a sapsucker "orchard/' states that "The tree in use 
last year was nearly dead. Two neighboring birches showing scars 
of 'earlier years were quite dead. . . . Orchard No. 4 . . . con- 
sisted of a Large number of dead and a few living trees. . . . The 
part of the orchard in use was a birch, from whose roots rose 4 
major trunks quickly subdividing into 15 minor stems each ris- 
ing to a height of over 
30 feet. All of the 15 
trunks were dead or 
dying. Only 7 of them 
bore leaves." "Hermit," 
speaking of a sapsucker 
"orchard," says: "The 
. . . canoe birches were 
dead or dying. Many 
. . . had been broken off 
by the wind just below 
the belt of punctures." 
Horsford says: "I have 
seen the white birch cut 
off, or rather broken off, 
20 feet from the ground, 
in more cases than I can 
number, all his work. 
. . . The birch tree in- 
variably dies." AndGar- 
Fio. 6.— Sapsucker work on hornbeam (Carpinus caroliniana). f, n ] ( ] notes tint "This 
bird invariably attacks what appears to be perfectly sound and 
healthy hark. Great injury is inflicted by these attacks. . . . The 
white birch is frequently killed." George H. Selover writes that 
sapsuckers have often killed silver birches at Lake City, Minn, (letter, 
1885). The tree is attacked in Maine also (H.). 
White BIRCH (Betula pendula). — Department of Agriculture 
grounds. District of Columbia. 
Chebky bibob (Betula lenta). — West Virginia (II. V 
Yellow birch (Betula luted). — The sapsucker "is partial to the 
. . . yellow birch" iBendirc), and it "injures or kills young trees" 
(Hopkins). William Brewster says that the yellow birch is very 
