Orange {?©, Fla. D. Mortimer. 
ISMdae of Michigan 
Stewart E, White 
Melanerpes carolinus. Red-bellied Woodpecker. 
Possessing very full testimony regarding this bird’s habit of 
eating oranges, as noticed with interest by Dr. Warren and Mr. 
Brewster, I offer my observations made near Sanford. During- 
to 
February and March, 1SS9, while gathering fruit or pruning 
orange trees, I frequently found oranges that had been riddled by 
this Woodpecker, and repeatedly saw the bird at work. I never 
observed it feeding upon fallen oranges. It helped itself freely 
to sound fruit that still hung on the trees, and in some instances I 
have found ten or twelve oranges on one tree that had been 
tapped by it. Where an orange accidentally rested on a branch 
in such a way as to make the flower end accessible from above or 
from a horizontal direction the Woodpecker chose that spot, as 
through it he could reach into all the sections of the fruit, and 
when this was the case there was but one hole in the orange. 
But usually there were many holes around it. It appeared that 
after having once commenced on an orange, the Woodpecker 
returned to the same one repeatedly until he had completely con- 
sumed the pulp, and then he usually attacked another very near 
to it. Thus I have found certain clusters in which every orange 
had been bored, while all the others on the tree were untouched. 
An old orange grower told me that the ‘ sapsuckers,’ as he called 
them, never touch any but very ripe oranges and are troublesome 
only to such growers as reserved their crops for the late market. 
He also said that it is only within a very few years that they have 
shown a taste for the fruit ; and I myself observed that, although 
Red-bellies were very common in the neighborhood, only an 
individual, or perhaps a pair, visited any one grove. In one 
case a pair took up their station in a dead pine near a grove and 
made excursions after the fruit at all hours of the day, being eas- 
ily located by the noise they kept up. AUK, VII, Oot, 
8- Bed-bellie d Woodpecker ( Melanerpes 
carolinus). Common in the southern part of 
the state, these birds reach nearly the limit of 
their northern range in Kent County. As a 
consequence, while not actually rare, their 
numbers are so small that opportunities for 
observation on their habits are necessarily few 
and far between. In migration one can be 
found occasionally inside the city limits when 
his habits are much the same as those of the 
Sapsucker. As summer residents they are 
always in the depths of the woods, preferably 
of a somewhat swampy character. They girdle 
the trunks very much as the Yellow-bellied 
does and in the proper season doubtless make 
many a meal of sap. I have seen one insert 
lus bill into the holes. They are very ex- 
peditious in their movements; beginning on 
the larger trunks, one thence proceeds to the 
limbs and twigs, pausing every few moments 
to arch his neck and give utterance to his shrill 
rolling call. This, though not remarkably loud, 
has great carrying power, and can be heard in 
the remotest confines of the woods in which 
they reside. The Red-bellied Woodpeckers 
though southern in range appear to be more 
hardy than some of their brothers; only the 
severest w inters can drive them away, and 
they are generally resident the year around. 
O&O.XVI, April. 1801. p. d'S’ 
