J 
is^TT. 
© 
iSqi.] Bolles <?« Yellow-bellied Woodpecker. ^57 
1 
* 
or Sapsucker is the most numerous. It may fairly be said to be 
J 
' ! • 
abundant in that district. I base this statement upon my daily 
count of birds seen between April and the middle of October in 
the years 1889 and 1890. I frequently record seeing from seven 
4. 
to ten of these birds in a day. Their favorite haunts are mixed 
« 
■ 
growths of young birch, larch, hemlock, maple and white ash 
bordering water or wet lands. 
My attention has been drawn to the Yellow-bellied Woodpeck- 
I 
fe 
ers on two accounts : — their quickness to observe and persistence 
in scolding my tame Owls when in the woods; and their destruc- 
tion of certain forest trees. 
r 
Last summer I was led to spend a considerable time in close 
study of these Woodpeckers and their feeding habits by the pecu- 
liar relations which I noticed as seeming to exist between them 
• 
V 
and Hummingbirds. My observations were given point by my 
recollection of the difference of opinion among ornithologists re- 
garding the diet of these Woodpeckers and their motive for tap- 
ping sap-yielding trees. I had heard it said that their sole reason 
for drawing the sap was to attract insects which they then fed 
upon. I had also heard that they ate the tender cambium layer 
which intervenes between the bark and inner wood of trees. I knew 
1 
• 
well that the birds were insect-eaters for I had often seen them fly 
into the air with the grace of a Tyrant Flycatcher or Cedarbird 
and capture insects on the wiffg. 
On July 19, 1S90 while watching a group of birds gathered in 
the woods around my tame Owl, Puffy, two Yellow-belliedWood- 
peckers and a Hummingbird attracted my attention. The Wood, 
peckers were scolding the Owl, when the Hummingbird darted 
towards one of them, hummed before it, rushed at the other, and 
then seeing the Owl flew at him squeaking furiously. Then it 
flew back to the first Sapsucker and perched near it. On the 21st 
I returned to the spot and found near by a Sapsucker’s ‘or- 
chard’ of ahnnt » — 
YELLOW-BELLIED WOODPECKERS AND TIIEIR 
UNINVITED GUESTS. 
BY FRANK BOLLES. 
I 
Of the seven species of Woodpeckers which I have found in 
f 
the region of Mt. Chocorua, New Hampshire, the Yellow-bellied 
. 
- 1 
m 
1 
I 
t ) ^ . 
3 
It 
