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THE AUK: 
A QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF 
ORNITHOLOGY. 
vol. ix. April, 1892. No. 2. 
YOUNG SAPSUCKERS IN CAPTIVITY. 
BY FRANK BOLLES. 
As readers of ‘The Auk’ may remember, I spent much time 
during the summer of 1890 in watching Yellow-bellied Wood- 
peckers at work in their ‘orchards’ near Mt. Chocorua, N. H. 
From my observations I drew the following conclusions (‘The 
Auk,’ July, 1891, p. 270), that “The Yellow-bellied Woodpecker 
is in the habit ... of drilling . . . trees for the purpose of taking 
from them the elaborated sap, and in some cases part of the cam- 
bium layer ; that the birds consume the sap in large quantities for 
its own sake and not for insect matter which such sap may chance 
occasionally to contain ; that the sap attracts many insects of 
various species, a few of which form a considerable part of the 
food of this bird.” 
These conclusions differed so radically from opinions held by 
many ornithologists that some persons, who either doubted the 
sufficiency and unimaginativeness of my observations, or who 
read my conclusions without scrutinizing my statements of fact, 
were unwilling to admit that 1 had proved the Yellow-bellied 
Woodpecker to be a sap-drinker. In order to present additional 
and different evidence in the case, I determined to secure several 
living Sapsuckers, to cut them off as completely as might be 
practicable from insect food, to feed them if possible upon con- 
centrated maple sap, and to see whether a diet of that kind would 
