16 WOODPECKKKS IX RELATION TO TREES. 
It is sometimes practicable to prevent damage by woodpeckers by 
covering objects with tin. This does not apply to buildings, of course, 
and when injury continues despite nest boxes and other protective 
devices more Btrenuous action is permissible. Do not try to kill the 
offenders by putting out poisoned food or water, for you will kill 
more friends than enemies. Some States properly permit the shoot- 
ing of birds by the owners of premises that are manifestly being 
damaged. Shooting should be allowed only when actual damage is 
being done and then only under supervision of a proper authority. 
DAMAGE BY SAPSUCKERS. 
DISTRIBUTION AND HABITS OF SAPSUCKERS. 
Many woodpeckers are commonly termed sapsuckers, but there 
are only three species properly so called : The yellow-bellied sapsucker 
(S pJiyrapicus varius) (PI. I), the red-breasted sapsucker {Sphyrapicus 
ruber) (PI. I), and the Williamson sapsucker (Sphyrapicus thyroideus) 
(PI. II). The yellow-bellied sapsucker (known also as red-throated 
sapsucker, squealing woodpecker, and whining woodpecker) together 
with its western form, the red-naped sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius 
nuchalis) , ranges over practically the whole of North America up to 60° 
north latitude, breeding from the northern limits of the range south to 
Massachusetts, Indiana, Colorado, and throughout the Rocky Moun- 
tain region, and migrating over the remainder of the continent as 
far as the West Indies and Central America. It sometimes winters 
as far north as the southern boundary of the breeding area. The 
red-breasted sapsucker, locally called .the red-headed woodpecker, 
nests from northern Lower California through the Sierra and Cascade 
Mountain Ranges to southern Alaska, withdrawing in winter to that 
part of its range south of middle California. The Williamson sap- 
si icker, the male of which was long known as the black-breasted and 
the female as the brown-headed woodpecker, occupies in summer the 
higher parts of the country from the eastern slopes of the Rocky 
Mountains to the Pacific coast, from Arizona and New Mexico to 
southern British Columbia, and winters from Texas and southern 
California south through the greater part of Mexico. 
The sapsuckers are a distinctly marked group of woodpeckers and 
are held by some authorities to constitute a separate subfamily. 
Most woodpeckers have long tongues which can be thrust far out of 
the beak and which are armed at the tip with backward projecting 
spines (fig. . -, )>, enabling the birds to secure their insect prey although 
deeply buried in wood. The sapsuckers, on the contrary, have short, 
practically oonextensible tongues, furnished with a fringe of still' 
hails dig. I •, not adapted to the capture of wood-boring insects. 
