90 WOODPECKERS IN RELATION TO Tin 
Im 90 of these they are ^<> Berious as to — | » « > i I the appearance <>r worka- 
bility of the wood, ami iii 22 Bpeciefl they render the wood useless 
except for coarse construction <>r for fuel. 
Except in the case of hickory, there are not at hand sufficient data 
t<> determine the proportion of trees injured by Bapsuckers, and hence 
it is n<»t possible t<> estimate the actual loss. To remedy this defect 
in part, the writer has made inventories of the trees of certain areas. 
Near the mouth of Scotts Kun. Fairfax County, \'a.. an area was 
marked out and found to contain 55 trees. Ten of these, or 18.1 per 
cent of the whole number, showed sapsucker work. Of 266 trees 
on a part of Phimniers Island. M<l.. ::(>, or 13.5 per cent, have been 
at. tacked by Bapsuckers. In the west half of the Department of 
Agriculture grounds at Washington are 2:V2 trees, of which 56, or 24 
per cent of the whole, show sapeucker work. The results of Less 
definite observations in the field are as follows: On St. Vincent 
Island, Fla., only enough live oaks and Long-leaf pines are pecked to 
make 1 per cent of the whole number of trees, but at the Santee Club, 
South Carolina, 90 per cent of these two species are attacked, as also 
enough other trees t<> make the proportion of the whole well over 50 
per cent. At Abbeville. La., and Gainesville, Fla., 25 to 60 per cent 
of the trees in various forests arc punctured; at Cottonport, La., 
about (io per cent show plentiful pecking, and at Longbridge, La., 
fully 95 per cent of the trees are profusely drilled, there being only 
one species, the tupclo gum, on which no pecks were seen. In con- 
nection with these estimates it must be borne in mind that we get a 
record only of the trees which bear considerable Bapsucker work as 
those with only a few pecks are likely to be unnoted. 
In collections of wood specimens in museums, where few if any 
cases of Bapsucker work were overlooked, the following proportions 
of punctured specimens were noted: One hundred and fifty-one 
out of a total of about 500, or 30 per cent of those in tin 1 American 
Museum of Natural History, and 71 (Hit of about the same number. 
<>[• 1 1 per cent of the specimens in the Arnold Arboretum. Jamaica 
Plain. Mass., which are mainly smaller pieces of the trees at the 
American Museum. The difference in size of the samples probably 
accounts for the discrepancy in the number bearing punctures. The 
collection of Illinois woods in the Field Museum of Natural History, 
Chicago, is composed of m? pieces, of which 36, or L8 per cent, bear 
Bapsucker work. Sixteen out of 64, or 25 per cent, of other United 
State- woods in the siinc museum were pecked. In the writer's 
opinion it i- - : ,fe to a — nine that at Least 1»» per cent of the trees in the 
normal range of the yellow-bellied woodpecker bear marks of it- work. 
This DManS that the WOOd Of 10 per cent of the tree- contains def< 
It ha- been shown that much white-oak and yellow -poplar veneer 
and many ash and hickory handles are relegated to the cull grade 
on account of bird peek-. In hundreds of barrels inspected by the 
