The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1901-01-17
MAKE BIRD'S-EYE MAPLE
Maine Man Finds New Use for Tame
Woodpeckers.

(Patten. Ne, Cor. Of New York SUM
After having spent more than sixty
years and more than SIC, 600 in hunting
bears and studying the ways of wild
creatures, Greenleaf Davis has begun
to raise tame woOdPeclzers with the
purpose of using them to convert ordin-
airy rock naples into the rare and
costly wood known as bird's-eye maple
Mr.. Davis is more than so. Sixty
years ago he inherited a miH property
valued at $4,000, which he soon sold
and then he went to the woods under
the side Of Mount Katahdin. Here he
built log camp and spent much Of
his time on the trails Of bears and
Indian devils, of which he has killed
more than any other man in Maine.
It has been Dir. DAVIS belief that no
creature should be kept in captivity
more than a month. If the creatures
he caught chose 10 remain with him
after that period they were welcome TO
such fare as he could afford to give. If
they wanted to go, the doors were
open. IN this way he has tanned squir-
reiS, muskTats and woOdchucks until
they and their Offspring nearly Overran
his camp With birds he has been less
aUccesStuL because most of them went
away south at the annual migrations.
and when they came back, if airy did
come back, they were ungTateful
enough to prefer their liberty to any
thing that Mr- Dasis could offer. He
has two crows. one Of which is more
than thirty 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 nearly 100. They are of the hairy
ana the dOWny species in about equal
numbers, but more than both Of these
in number and esteem are the red
headed saPsuckers, which pick round
holes in the bark of trees, making
them look like the bottom of an old
styled ColaudeT.
As Ties woodpeckers did not mi srate.
Mr.. Davis had company the year round.
BE put uD boxes for them to occupy. as
homes and in a few years the maple
grove cack OF MS camp was filed with
birds. The yellow hammer is the only
species Of the wOOdpecker family that
will live without insect food and after
the Sapsuckers grew very numerous,
Mr.. Davis had much trouble TO feed
them. He dug up the ant hills and
sifted the sand out to get the insects
for his birds, but in spite of his abors
the red-headed wOodpeckers made sad
havoc in his sap orchard, digging holes
in his best naples and impairing the
iOW u sap from which nuCn OF MS
living was derived.
1t was impossible to kill the birds
because Of the company they afforded
ard it was equally impossible to live
without the income from the sap or
chard. The old man spent weeks in his
grove, watching the result Of the
wounds which the birds inflicted on the
bark AS the scars healed he noticed
that there was a bright red spot left
on the wood directly bpIoXv fbp y.-p71Td
If 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 time it occurred to hin
that as the beautiful markings OF
bird s-eye maple were due to the rec
spots in the wood, and as nobody haC
ever been able to account for them, il
was possible that the variety of maple
known as bird's-eye might owe its or
igin TO the work of the woOdpeckers
II 50, he had made q discovery tha
had bafied botanists for years. H
/ had also learned how to make his col
/ Ony of tame woodpeckers seIf-sup-
/ porting.
BY mixing the ants, which he sift.
from the sand, with d paste formed
from elm bark boiled down to a thicl
batter, he can smear the trunks q
thrifty NAPLES with such food as tn,
/ woodpeckers require, and while they
/ are getting a meal from the bark thei'
| bills are boring new holes in the tree:
: that shall transform ordinary mapl,
wood, worth no more than SD a thous
and feet into bird s-eye maple tina
! sells anywhere from $50 to $50 a thous
} and, and the dealers cannot get ali the
/ want at those prices.