396 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
of trees is so serious that it more than counterbalances any good that the bird does 
in other directions” (Beal). 
General Habits. —The Red-naped Sapsuckers serve still better 
than the Flicker as illustrations of the relation of form to habit. Al¬ 
though they excavate their nests, their bills are not so stout and chisel- 
Shaded areas show general range. Triangles mark breeding and breeding 
season records 
like as those of the hairy, downy, and three-toed forms; while their 
tongues instead of being greatly extensible and barbed for extracting 
wood-boring larvae are short, practically nonextensible and tipped with 
a brush of stiff hairs, enabling them to swab up ants and suck sap. The 
familiar girdles of squarish holes seen on tree trunks in their territory 
blaze the trees they have visited and give a clue to their abundance 
