20 WOODPKCKKKS IX RELATION TO TREES. 
EFFECTS OF SAPSUCKER WORK ON THE HEALTH OF TREES. 
Bendire says: "In certain localities, as where apple orchards are 
abundant, it [tin 4 yellow-bellied Bapsucker] becomes a nuisance, and 
materially injures and eventually kills many such trees. 1 ' 1 In the 
State of Washington whole orchards of young apple trees have been 
destroyed by sapsuckers, either by the western form of the yellow- 
bellied woodpecker or by the red-breasted sapsucker. The latter 
species injures other trees also, as related by Ellwooc 1 Cooper, of Santa 
Barbara] ( 5al. I Ie says: 
There were n<> trees killed outright at the time the sapsuckers were so bad, but 
many of them ceased to be useful as fruit bearers. Some apple trees died back at the 
top and did not thrive, so that I cut them down as useless, also a few English walnut 
trees. The orange trees had my special attention. 1 used the knife, cutting out the 
injured place, covered the wood with grafting wax. and had the bark heal over. The 
trees are living now and thriving. T have a few bine gums i Eucalyptus globulus) that 
show injury at this time. I consider the birds a pest. There were many other trees 
injured. I hired a boy to shoot the red-headed woodpeckers [i. e., the red-breasted 
Bapsuckers] and intend to do so the coming spring. (Jan. 22 and Feb. 8, 1909. | 
B. Horsford, of Springfield, Mass., writes as follows concerning the 
yellow-bellied sapsucker: 
I have seen the white lurch cut off, or rather broken off, 20 feet from the ground in 
more cases than I can number — all his work. I have seen the yellow lurch destroyed 
in the same manner — branches of the tree cut off, shriveled branches struggling for 
life, but dying. I have seen a tree girdled with spots 20 feel from the ground, then 
again a few feet lower, then below that, repeating the process to the roots, leaving a 
dead and dry Bection above each belt. I have seen the white pine destroyed in the 
same way. ... I have seen an elm tree 18 inches in diameter, whose trunk of Y2 
feet was spotted with "gimlet holes" . . . where for 10 summers past I have shot the 
pest and thereby saved the tree. . . . \Yhere the bird breeds, whole orchards are 
severely injured, if not destroyed. . . . The leaves fade and the fruit withers on 
the stem or falls to the ground. Perhaps not half the apple trees attacked are killed 
outright, but the birch tree invariably dies. 2 
Even forest trees are not immune from injury by sapsuckers. 
Prof. W. W. Cooke, of the Biological Survey, states that near Lake 
Itasca, in northern Minnesota, wliere the birds breed, the yellow- 
bellied is the most common woodpecker. It does much mischief 
among forest trees, killing many great poplars by its 'girdles. 
Mr. A. W. Butler says: 
It knows when sugar making begins. ... I have found their borings, from which 
Bap was Sowing, February 19, 1896. Through March and April they continue their 
work. ... In fall when they come to us they resume their work of piercing the 
bark of maple, apple, and other trees. . . . I have round their fresh work on young 
apple trees, inner before pierced, as late as November L9, L896. Tine trees are also 
girdled, chiefly, however, through the winter, for among them the sapsucker spends 
his winter, and about lawns where pines and maples grow together they are most com- 
monly found at that season. By Spring they have removed most of the bark scales 
i Bendire, C, Life Histories of X. a. Birds, II, 84-85, 1895. 3 Forest and Stream, XX. 134, 1883. 
