ECONOMIC RELATIONS OF OUR BIRDS. 
notes appear to indicate, however, that it is quite as insectivorous as they are. 
“ The peculiar formation o^f its tongue," upon wliich some lay so much stress iu 
deciding its ability to destroy insects, it should be observed, only disqualifies it 
for obtaining wood-boring larvae, and not for otiier insects. 
That the Yellow-bellied Woodpecker does sometimes suck the sap of trees is 
rendered probable by an instance which came under my observation April 23, 
1878. On this date one of these birds was observed at work on a small pignut 
liickorj’^ standing on the campus of Cornell University. Two horizontal series 
of holes had been recently luerced through the bark, one above the other, but on 
nearly opposite sides of the tree, and separated by a distance of about four feet. 
The Woodpecker was seen to pass along each of these series of holes from one 
end to the other, deliberately, but not forcibly, thrusting its bill into each suc¬ 
cessive perforation, as if removing something from it. When it had visited 
every hole it flew to another tree of the same kind standing near by; there it 
was seen to perform the same operation upon a similar single series of holes. 
After loitering about the second tree for two or three minutes it returned to the 
first and repeated the action already described, when, after a short interval, it 
repeated its visit to the holes on the second tree. On returning from dinner, 
about twenty minutes afterwards, I found the AVoodpecker still at work, and 
the sap was running down the trunk of the tree from one of the series of holes, 
wetting it to a distance of a foot below the perforations. On examining these 
holes they were found to extend through the bark and into the wood to a depth 
of about an eighth of an inch, and to have a diameter but little greater than 
that of the bird’s bill near its base; toward the bottom they narrowed greatly 
along their vertical axes and widened considerably along their horizontal axes, 
so as, at the bottom, to be narrowly oblong — so narrow, indeed, as, in most 
cases, to be mere incisions through the inner bark. I have examined a large 
number of the holes made by this species in the bark of the apple and maj^le, 
and wherever there has been a series of holes the series has always been hori¬ 
zontal, and the holes have conformed to the description of those above, except 
that often the wood was merely indented by a close series of punctures. These 
holes have always been in sound wood, and I have detected no evidence that any 
insect had been at work beneath the bark at the points where the perforations 
were made; and the holes have all been so narrow where they have passed 
through the inner bark, that it does not appear probable that the inner bark 
could have been the object for which these punctures were made. 
This species is, however, very generally accused of feeding extensively upon 
the inner bark of trees. In regard to this point Dr. Brewer says: “ In the spring 
of the year these birds prey largely upon the inner bark of trees, and where 
they exist in great numbers they often do a great deal of mischief. In April, 
1868, I visited gardens in Racine, in company with Dr. Hoy, where these Wood¬ 
peckers had every successive spring committed their ravages, and was eye-wit¬ 
ness to their performance. Their punctures were unlike those of the puhcscens, 
being much deeper, penetrating the inner bark, and, being repeated in close 
proximity, the bark becomes entirely stripped off after a while, often resulting 
in the girdling and complete destruction of the tree. In one garden of some 
considerable size, all the mountain ash and white pine trees had thus been killed. 
In prairie countries, where trees are deficient and their cultivation both imjwr- 
tant and attended with difficulty, these birds prove a great pest, and in a few 
hours may destroy the labor of many years.” Dr. Cones, in his “Key to North 
American Birds,” in speaking of the genus to which this species belongs, says: 
“ Birds of this genus feed much upon fruits, as well as insects, and also, it would 
