Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1901-01-31
BIRDS MARK MAPLE.
WOODPECKERS ARE RESPONSE.
BILE FOR 6iROSEYE.
In All Spots Where Their Sharp Lit.
tie Bills Penetrate the Bark There
Aupear the ked spots that Beauty
the Mood.

tie Bills Penetrate the Bark There
Appear the Red spots that Beautify
the Wood.
After having spent more than sixty
years unL more than $4,000 IN hunting
bears and studying the ways OF via
creatures, Greenleaf Davis, OF Pat
ten, Mc has begun to raise tame
woOdpeckers with the purpose OF
using them to convert ordinary rock
NAPLES into the rare and costly woo0
known as bird's-eye maple. MIR. Da-
Wis Is more than ~. Sixty years
ago he inherited mill property valued
ut $4,000, which he soon sod ana then
he went to the woods under the size OF
Mount kathahdin. Here he built 10Y
camp and spent much Of his time on
the trail of bears and Indian devils, OF
which he has killed more than any
other man in Maine.
1t has been Mr.. Davis belief that no
creature should he kept In captivity
more than Il month. Ii the creatures
he caught chose to remain with him
after that period they were welcome
to such fare as lie could afford to give.
If they wanted to go the doors were
open. In this way he has tanned squir-
rels, muskruts and woodchucks until
they and their offspring nearly overrun
his camp. With birds lie has been less
successful, because most Of them Went
away south at the annual migratons,
and when they came back, If any did
come back, they were unsrateIul
enough to prefer their liberty to any
thing that Mr. Davis could offer. He
has two crows, one of which Is more
than 30 years old. which have stayed
by him and never sought the society OF
their kind. Two robins lived with him
for three years, but persisted one cold
night when the camp fire went out.
His great success has been won with
woodpeckers, of which he now has near
ly 1UO. They are of the hairy and the
downy species In about equal numbers,
but more than both of these In number
and esteem are the red-headed sap
suckers, which pick round holes in the
bark OF trees, making them look like the
bottom Of an old-styled colander.
AS these woodpeckers did not migrate
Mr.. Davis had company the year round.
He put up boxes for them to occupy rs
homes and III IL few years the maple
grove back of his camp WAS filled with
birds. The yellow hammer is the only
species of the woodpecker family that
will live without insect food, and after
the sHpsuckers grew very numerous
Mr.. Davis had much trouble to feed
them. He dug up the ant hills and sift-
ed the sand out to get the insects for his
birds, but In spite Of his labOrs the red
headed woOdpeckers made sad havoc in
his sap orchard. digging holes In his
best NAPLES and impairing the flow Of
sap, from which much Of his living was
derived.
1t was impossible to kill the birds be-
cause Of the company they afforded and
1t was equally impossible to live with
out the income from the sap orchard.
The old man spent weeks In his grove,
watching the result Of the wounds
which the birds inflicted ON the bark
there was bright red spot left on the
wood directly below the wound. II the
tree was badly marked the red spots
were more numerous than they were on
trees which had suffered less, while ON
trees which the wOOdpeckers had not
visited there were no traces Of red.
About this tinme 1t occurred to him
that as the beautiful markings Of birds
eye maple were due to the red spots In
the wood, aud as nobody had ever been
able to account for them. 1t was posi-
BILE that the variety Of maple known as
blrd's-eye might owe its origin to the
work Of the woodpeckers. II so he had
made discovery that had baffled bot
anists for years. He had also learned
how to make his colony of tame wood
peckers self-supporting.
BY mixing the ants. which he sits
from the sand. with paste formed
from elm bark boiled down to a thick
batter he can smear the trunks Of
thrifty naples with such food as the
woodpeckers require and while they
are getting a meal from the bark their
bills are boring new holes In the trees
that shall transform ordinary maple
wood, worth no more than $12 a thou
sand feet, into birl's-eye maple that
sells anywhere for $50 and $50 thou
sand. and the dealers cannot get all
they want Mt those prices.