es Issued May 24, 1911,

Oe S% DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
BIOLOGICAL SURVEY—BULLETIN No. 37

HENRY W. HENSHAW, Chief

FOOD OF THE WOODPECKERS OF THE
~ UNITED STATES

BY

¥, E. L, BEAL

Assistant, Biological ‘Survey

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WASHINGTON
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
< ; ¥ s 1911
Bull. 37. Biological Survey, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture PLate |

 

BREUKFR & KESSLER CO LITH PHIL*

HAIRY AND DOWNY WOODPECKERS.
Issued May 24, 1911.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

BIOLOGICAL SURVEY—BULLETIN No. 37
HENRY W. HENSHAW, Chief

FOOD OF THE WOODPECKERS OF THE
UNITED STATES

BY

F. E. L. BEAL

' Assistant, Biological Survey

 

WASHINGTON
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
1911
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LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE,
. BrotoeicaL SURVEY,
Washington, D. C., December 23, 1910.

Str: I have the honor to transmit herewith for publication as
Bulletin No. 37 of the Biological Survey, a report on the Food of the
Woodpeckers of the United States, by F. E. L. Beal, assistant, Bio-
logical Survey. The diminished supply of timber and its greatly
increased cost render the conservation of our remaining forests
exceedingly important. It has been estimated that within the
United States insects destroy trees and lumber to the value of upward
of $100,000,000 annually. As boring insects are the natural enemies
of trees, so birds are their natural allies. Of all birds that further the
welfare of the forest; woodpeckers are the most important, many of
them indeed being specially adapted to dig into wood in order to
reach insect larve safe from all other enemies. While most wood-
peckers are thus highly beneficial, the sapsuckers are injurious, since
they subsist to a considerable extent on the cambium or inner bark
of trees. This bulletin is meant to serve a practical end by describ-
ing the food habits of the several species, and by pointing out the
extent to which each is beneficial or injurious, so that the forester,
the farmer, and the orchardist may know friend from foe.

Respectfully,
H. W. Hensnaw,
Chief, Biological Survey.
Hon. James WIzson,
Secretary of Agriculture.
CONTENTS.

Introduction Bias asseasckwiscs a fs ebemseeeeme es ses hou eae oan yee ae
Hairy wood peckeriw: cosagiass sud ss sseteeweiaes ees io aciteeeeeee ey ees ass
Downy wood pecker: f.5 saves edhe scx cased cedewst uc sdeeteegetantececs SSee
Red-cockaded woodpecker..-........- 2.222.202 eee cece cece ee eee eee eee eee
Nuttall wood pecket....<ccceisd antapilnencsmrdis sett gewanvenieegescsaesees
Three-toed woodpeckers. .......-.2..-.--- 22-002 eee cece eee eee eee eee eee eeee
Yellow-bellied woodpecker or sapsucker.......-.--.-.0-20-20-202 eee cece eres
Red-breasted,sapsucker's.\isvsc sehlaide sew os 28 24 2 kee soe eee eee cel seagate
Williamson :sapsuckeriwse.020: + sucniseecdecie'y sets Pot aust cesses ee easees ¢
Pileated: woodpecker. ...ioc0030.cidees deceee es Sees Seed gieea ceuee ee ee Shee
Red-headed woodpecker.............2.22.2 2220222 e cece eee eee cee eee eee eee
California: wood pecker. < o.o.. oahnewdeicsnene cong neeweoneeidewad ee Leaecsaee
Lewis woodpecker.......-...-2.-2-- 22-22-22 eee eee eee eee eee eee
Red-bellied woodpecker... scceccegsce yess s cssssiseeewsaceas yess eos

Lvory-billed woodpecker. -c2s2+ssnsesciecesds sous Ce udecdeiecicestee ves seeds
Other wood peck ers). cc.cieeesvouceereccd es sissies keene ieloalinds
ILLUSTRATIONS,

PLATES.
Page.
Puate I. Hairy and downy woodpeckers..........---...--+----+-- Frontispiece.
II. Yellow-bellied sapsucker...........--2.222--2--2-2200-0--202-0-2-- 32
III. Red-headed woodpecker. .......22.2222:+2220s00 sees esuewenenes 32
TV. ‘California woodpecketins::.saccceuue caw: eo os onceseuenissecsenees 40
Va Dewils woodpeckétin: as:<ercteemsenee sie ceed deledtaeeeenenaus 40
Wels Ce Bawls essere ater an a 2 clea tt oS Aine an a cree Ae devd 48

TEXT FIGURES.

Fic. 1. Tongues of woodpeckers........---.2... 0002 c ee eee eee eee eee eee ee 8
2. Special development of tongues of woodpeckers........-..---.------- 8
3. Wood from which woodpecker has extracted insect...-...-..--..----- 9

6
FOOD OF WOODPECKERS.

(Picide.)

INTRODUCTION.

During the last few decades much interest has been aroused in the
preservation and extension of forest areas within the United States,
and large sums of money have been spent on our National Forests.
Meanwhile scientists have been studying means to combat the insect
enemies of forests, which in some cases have threatened the total
destruction of large tracts. There is probably no species of land
plant that has not at least one insect enemy, and the trees of the forest
furnish food and homes for legions. In the Fifth Report of the United
States Entomological Commission over 400 species of insects are
reported to feed on the oak, and the opinion is expressed that this
number is far below the total. In the same work about 80 species
are said to feed on the elm, 170 on the hickory, 41 on the locust, 100
on the maple, 105 on the birch, 186 on the willow, and 165 on the
pine; and in each case the list is confessedly incomplete.

On this point Dr. Hopkins has said:

The results of investigation lead to the conclusion that the annual loss from insect
work on forest trees, and their crude or finished products, amounts to at least
$100,000,000.

No period in the life history of a tree is exempt from insect attack, and every part,
from the smallest roots to the terminal buds, leaves, flowers, and fruit, may be infested.
by one or many species. The seed in the ground, the tender shoots of both roots and
stems, and the young seedling to the matured tree, may be attacked by special ene-
mies which injure or destroy different parts of the entire plant. In fact, living, dis-
eased, dead, or decaying, a tree may be the home of hundreds of species and thousands
of individuals of insect life.1

Wherever the Dendroctonus beetles have been found in standing timber, the work
of woodpeckers has been more or less common, and in some trees quite a large percent-
age of the beetle broods has been destroyed by the birds. The evidence gathered in
Maine a few years ago indicates quite conclusively that the birds were rendering a
most valuable service as a natural check to the multiplication and destructive work of
the eastern spruce beetle. The work of birds is common in sections where species 1
[Dendroctonus brevicomis], 9 [D. monticolx], and 10 [D. ponderosx], and other western
species are prevalent. Yet birds evidently render the greatest service where but few
trees are being killed, since their concentrated work may prevent an abnormal increase
of the beetles; but where’many hundreds or thousands of trees are being killed, the
limited number of birds can have little or no effect. Therefore, while the birds are
among the foresters’ valuable friends, they can not, even with the utmost protection,
always be relied upon to protect the forest from its enemies.”

 

1 From manuscript of lecture on Forest Insects and Their Destructive Work, by Dr. A. D. Hopkins, in
charge of Forest Insect Investigations, Bureau of Entomology, U.S. Dept. Agric.
2 Hopkins, A. D., Bull. 83, Bureau of Entomology, U. 8. Dept. Agric., Part I, pp. 27-28, 1909.
7
8 FOOD OF WOODPECKERS OF UNITED STATES,

From these considerations it is at once apparent how important
must be any agency that restrains or limits this great army of tree
destroyers. Of all birds that further the welfare of trees, whether
of forest or orchard, woodpeckers are the
most important. The value of their work
in dollars and cents is impossible to cal-
culate, but careful study of their food in
both field and laboratory has brought out
many facts of practical importance.

Woodpeckers are essentially arboreal in
their habits and obtain the greater part of
their food from trees. Their physical con-
formation eminently adapts them to this
mode of life. Their legs are rather short
and stout, and the toes are furnished with
strong, sharp claws. With the exception
of the genus Picoides, all North American
woodpeckers have four toes, two of which
point forward and two backward. To
further aid in maintaining themselves on
the trunks of trees, their tails are com-
posed of stiff feathers terminating in sharp
spines, which can be pressed against the
bark and so serve as a prop to hold the bird in an upright position
while it is at work. Woodpeckers are thus enabled to cling easily
to the trunks and branches and to strike effective blows with their
beaks upon the bark
or wood

As much of the food
of woodpeckers is ob-
tained fromsolid wood,
Nature has provided
most of them with a
stout beak having a
chisel- shaped point,
which forms an ex-
ceedingly effective
wood-cutting instru-
ment. But the most
peculiar and interest-
ing point in the anat-
omy of these birds is the tongue. This is more or less cylindrical
in form and usually very long (fig. 1, @). At the anterior end it
generally terminates in a hard point, with more or less barbs upon
the sides (fig. 1, 6). Posteriorly the typical woodpecker tongue is

 

Fic. 1.—Tongues of woodpeckers.

 

Fig. 2.—Special development of tongues of woodpeckers.
INTRODUCTION. 9

extended in two long, slender filaments of the hyoid bone which curl
up around the back of the skull and, while they commonly stop
between the eyes, in some species they pass around the eye (fig. 2, b),
but in others enter the right nasal opening and extend to the end of
the beak (fig. 2, a). In this last case the tongue is practically twice
the length of the head. Posteriorly this organ is inclosed in a muscu-
lar sheath by means of which it can be extruded from the mouth to
a considerable length, and used as a most effective instrument for
dislodging grubs or ants from their burrows in wood or bark. Hence,
while most birds have to be content with such insects as they find on
the surface or in open crevices, the woodpeckers devote their energies
to those larvee or grubs which are beneath the bark or even in the
heart of the tree. They locate their hidden prey with great accuracy
and often cut small holes directly to the burrows of the grubs. In

 

 

 

 

 

Fic. 3.—Wood from which woodpecker has extracted insect.

figure 3 the grub had eaten a burrow through the heart of a maple
sapling, but its position was accurately determined by the bird, which
then cut through the solid live wood until it reached the burrow and
extracted the insect.

In the United States, exclusive of outlying possessions, there
are about 45 species and subspecies of this family, most of which are
of decided economic importance. As a family they are much less
migratory than most other birds, and a majority of the species occupy
the same range throughout the year, which adds materially to their
value to farmers. Their food consists so largely of wood-boring
erubs, hibernating insects, and insects’ eggs and pupe that their
supplies do not fail even in the coldest weather.

The present paper is based upon the examination of 3,453 stom-
achs of woodpeckers representing 16 species and nearly twice as
many subspecies, taken in all parts of the United States, with a few
from Canada. In the following table the species are arranged in the
10 FOOD OF WOODPECKERS OF UNITED STATES,

order of the average amount of animal food contained in their
stomachs.

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
    
  
 
 
 
 

 

 

Per cent of | Per cent of
Name of species. Hauler o f animal vegetable
q food. food.

Three-toed woodpecker (Picoides americanus). . 23 94. 06 5.94
Arctic three-toed woodpecker (Picoides arcticus 28 88. 69 11. 31
Williamson sapsucker (Sphyrapicus thyroideus) 17 86. 67 13. 33
Red-cockaded woodpecker (Dryobates borealis) 76 81. 06 18. 94
Nuttall woodpecker (Dryobates nuttalli) . 53 79. 41 20. 59
Hairy woodpecker (Dryobates villosus) 382 77. 67 22. 33
Downy woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens) . 723 76. 05 23. 95
Pileated woodpecker (Phieotomus pileatus 80 72. 88 27.12
Red-breasted sapsucker (Sphyrapicus ruber) - 34 68. 92 31. 08
Red-shafted flicker ( Colaptes cafer).... 183 67. 74 32. 26
Flicker ( Colaptes ara. a Saale Vee sears iE hadvtfaths an endranvah a Sintered 684 60. 92 39. 08
Yellow-bellied sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius) ........-.---+---+----- 313 49. 31 50. 69
Lewis woodpecker (A syndesmus lewisi).......-..--.--+-------+---+- 59 37. 48 62. 52
Red-headed woodpecker ( Melanerpes erythrocephalus)......-...-.-- ~ 443 33. 83 66. 17
Red-bellied woodpecker ( Centurus carolinus)........---.-+---+-+--- 271 30. 94 69. 06
California woodpecker ( Melanerpes f. bairdi).....-.....--.--+------- 84 22. 59 77.41
TOtal ec: cn serientecuuaaava st xeedeemeuaieerees see eeedereaeeee eee 35453) | siemens [beewet ances

SANT OVD ROR so crt tia sey ciaein ts win Rea caine WS eebaSE eC ee eae ae Moa ee aera 64. 26 35, 74

 

 

 

 

It is not probable that these relations are absolute in every case.
The position of Sphyrapicus ruber above the two species of Colaptes
is perhaps accidental, and the examination of a few stomachs more or
less would be likely to change slightly the relative positions. The
vegetable food, of course, stands in an inverse ratio to the animal.
Mineral matter (sand) is not taken largely by woodpeckers. The
most is found in the stomachs of the flickers, but it is probably picked
up accidentally with ants, of which these birds eat great numbers.
Ants constitute the largest itém of animal food—28.41 per cent,
considering the whole 16 species collectively—and are actually the
largest item in the stomachs of 8 species. The Williamson sapsucker,
the red-cockaded woodpecker, and the two flickers take the highest
rank in this respect. Beetles stand next in importance, and amount
to 20.42 per cent. These two items together form nearly half the
food. The remainder of the animal food is composed of insects,
with a few spiders, millepeds, and sowbugs, and occasionally a sala-
mander, tree frog, lizard, or snail. In the following table is given the
average percentage of ants and beetles in the stomach. The species
are arranged in the order of their rank as ant eaters.

 

 

   
 
 
 
 
 

 

i Per cent of | Per cent of
Name of species. ants. beetles.

Williamson sapsucker (Sphyrapicus thyroideus) 85. 94 0.13
Red-cockaded woodpecker (Dryobates borealis) 56.75 11. 02
Red-shafted flicker ( Colaptes cafer) 53. 82 6.55
Flicker ( Colaptes carat) afd Salsalina a ONS 49.75 5.14
Red-breasted sapsucker (Sphyrapicus ruber 42. 49 4,02
Pileated woodpecker (Phlaotomus pileatus 39. 91 22.01
Yellow-bellied sapsucker (Sphyrapicus vari 34. 31 6.02
Downy woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens)... 21. 36 21.55
Ilairy woodpecker Mean villosus)...- 17.10 41. 42
Lewis woodpecker (A syndesmus lewisi).. . 11. 87 9.12
Three-toed woodpecker (Picoides americanus).....-..- 8. 29 71.05
Nuttall woodpecker (Dryobates nuttalli)....-.....-.... 8.19 28. 86
California woodpecker ( Melanerpes f. bairdi).........-.-. ¥ 8.09 2. 67
Red-bellied woodpecker ( Centurus carolinus)......-.-. 6.45 10. 18
Arctic three-toed woodpecker (Picoides arcticus)....... ae 6. 35 67. 66
Red-headed woodpecker ( Melancrpes erythrocephalus)............022.202-0000--- 5.17 18. 85
INVCTAP Oh ans co euiceee te pom cas a lata led oe Sm ler tavieinas apes ee mates lete 28. 49 20. 39

 

 

 
INTRODUCTION. 11

If the 16 species of woodpeckers herein discussed were arranged
in the order of their usefulness according to their food, they would
stand about as at top of page 10, except that the 3 species of Sphy-
rapicus, owing to their sap-sucking propensities, might be placed
at the foot of the column. It is unfortunate that so few stomachs
of the three or four species nearest the top have been received, but
probably those examined were in no way exceptional. The 2
species of Picoides are among the most useful birds, especially in the
forest, of which they are preeminently the conservators. More than
60 per cent of the animal food of these two birds consists of the larve
of wood-boring beetles, which they dig from the bark and wood of
trees. The two species Dryobates pubescens and D. villosus do not
fall far behind in this good work, and several others eat very appre-
ciable quantities of wood borers. Among the beetles eaten by the
different birds are naturally some useful species, such as the preda-
ceous ground beetles (Carabide) or tiger beetles (Cicindelidxe). The
redhead eats useful beetles to the extent of 7.34 per cent of its diet,
the Lewis woodpecker, with 6.7 per cent, stands next on the list of
offenders in this respect, followed by the red-shafted flicker with
3.9 per cent, and the eastern flicker with less than 2 per cent. No
other species had eaten so much as 1 per cent of these beetles. What-
ever sins woodpeckers may commit, the destruction of useful beetles
is not one of them. :

Nearly all the vegetable food, except a few seeds, including some
grain, can be included under three items—fruit, cambium, and mast.
The greatest interest attaches to the cambium, which is a jellylike
substance found just under the bark of growing trees and from which
both wood and bark are formed. The smaller species of wood-
peckers have been accused of pecking the bark from fruit and forest
trees to an injurious extent in order to get this substance. While
nearly all members of the family eat some cambium, the only ones
that really do much harm by the habit appear to be the yellow-
bellied sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius) and others of the same genus.
With the yellow-bellied sapsucker‘cambium amounts to about 17 per
cent of the annual food and in April reaches 48 per cent. As the
substance is often semifluid, probably much passes almost immedi-
ately out of the stomach, leaving only the harder and less easily
digested part, so that a much larger amount is eaten than is shown
by stomach examination.

In obtaining the cambium the bird sometimes denudes the tree of
its bark over a considerable area, and so ruins it for any economic
use except fuel; at other times a series of single punctures are made
in lines extending around the tree, and as new layers of wood grow
over these, the indentation at each puncture becomes less and less
pronounced. If, after some years, this timber be cut and sawed,
LD, FOOD OF WOODPECKERS OF UNITED STATES,

a tangential or circular cut across the punctures gives a bird’s-eye
appearance very similar to that which Nature produces in some
maples. A radial cut through the punctures gives the curly look
often found in many woods. It frequently happens, however, that
water enters at the punctures and causes a slight decay, which usually
disfigures the wood by making a dark stain, though occasionally the
effect is ornamental.

With the possible exception of the crow, no birds have been subject
to so much adverse criticism as the woodpeckers. When they are
seen scrambling over fruit trees and fresh holes are found in the bark,
it is concluded that they must be doing harm. But woodpeckers,
except a few species, rarely disfigure a healthy tree, but when they
find a tree infested by wood-boring larvee, they locate the insects
accurately, draw them out, and devour them. If in succeeding
years the burrows formerly occupied by the larve are used by a
colony of ants, they in turn are dug out and destroyed.

The following are samples of testimony by Dr. Hopkins and other
eminent entomologists to the persistent and effective work of wood-
peckers in destroying wood-boring beetles and other insect enemies
of trees:

As has already been stated, woodpeckers are the most important enemies of the
bark beetle, and appear to be of inestimable value to the spruce-timber interests of
the Northeast. Indeed, I feel confident that in the many hundreds of infested trees
examined at least one-half of the beetles and their young had been destroyed by the
birds, and in many cases it was evident that even a greater proportion had perished
from this cause alone.

Estimating 100 beetles to the square foot of bark in the average infested tree, and
an average of 60 square feet of infested bark, it is possible for each tree to yield an
average of 6,000 individuals; 100 trees, 600,000, and so on. It is therefore plain
that, if one-half or two-thirds of this number are destroyed by the birds and other
enemies, the amount of timber the remainder can kill will be lessened. This is all
the more apparent when it is remembered that it is only when the beetles occur in
great numbers that they can overcome the resistance of the living trees.!

Birds contribute their share, also, in destroying larvee and pup. The work of
woodpeckers was found upon most of the trees which had been killed by Dendroctonus
brevicomis, and these birds had evidently destroyed a large percentage of the insects
in some of the trees.”

As natural enemies of this insect [the maple borer, Plagionotus speciosus] it is prob-
able that various species of woodpeckers render the greatest service. At Huntington,
Mass., I have seen the hairy woodpecker, the downy woodpecker, and the flicker
feeding upon white larve taken from beneath the bark of maples infested by this
borer.

Woodpeckers do much good by hammering holes in the bark of infested cottonwoods
and devouring the young carpenter worms [larvee of Cossus populi]. We certainly
ought to protect these feathered friends of ours instead of allowing every small boy in
the country to shoot them whenever he pleases.*

 

1 Hopkins, A. D., Bull. 28 (new ser.), Division of Entomology, U. 8S. Dept. Agric., pp. 23, 25-26, 1901.
2 Webb, J. L., Bull. 58, Part II, Bureau of Entomology, U. S. Dept. Agric., p. 27, 1906.

9 Kirkland, A. H., in Mass. Crop Report for June, 1897, p. 32, 1897.

4Doten, 8. B., Bull. 49, Nevada Agric. Exper. Sta., p. 12, 1900.
HAIRY WOODPECKER. 13

-

T have found no parasite of this larva [Hepialus argenteomaculatus], but I have seen
that the woodpeckers are its deadly foes. In April, 1886, I had a favorable oppor-
tunity to search for the borer and was astonished at the scores removed by these birds.
They often drill through a deep layer of wood; often two holes are made one above
the other, the purpose being obvious. The morsel is evidently located, or its burrow
rather, by sounding, as I noticed many instances in which a row of punctures sur-
rounded the base of the alder. The destroyers are sometimes mistaken, for I found
their drillings, evidently made in search of this larva, in sound wood in which there
were no borers, but these were few compared with the successful trials.

Is it the activity of these birds that prevents the abundance in the forests of certain
borers, e. g. Aegeria acernt, whilst the same insect is often destructively abundant in
the ornamental maples of cities and villages? !

HAIRY WOODPECKER.
(Dryobates villosus subspp.)

The hairy woodpecker (frontispiece), in one or another of its various
forms, inhabits the whole of temperate North America, but is rare
over some extensive areas. It is a rather restless, noisy bird, as com-
pared with its smaller relative, the downy, and makes itself conspicu-
ous by loud calls and rapid flights from tree to tree. It is eminently
arboreal in its habits and gets most of its food from trees. While
sometimes found in the midst of a dense forest, it prefers the outer
edge of the woodland or groves or orchards. In the latter it is quite
at home, especially if the trees be old and neglected, for then they
usually offer decayed knots and limbs where wood borers establish
their colonies. The bird is not migratory, unless within very narrow.
limits, and where it occurs at all can usually be found the year round.
It nests in a cavity which it excavates in a partly decayed trunk or
branch. While often seen in the orchard, the hairy does not go there
for fruit. More than three-fourths of its food consists of animal
matter, and less than a fourth of the remainder is fruit, mostly of
wild species.

In the investigation of the food of the hairy woodpecker detailed
below, 382 stomachs were examined. They were obtained from 33
States and Territories, the District of Columbia, and Canada, and
were taken in every month of the year. They undoubtedly embrace
all the recognized subspecies, but as some of them were collected before
all the forms had been defined, they can not now be distinguished.
However, as the food of-the various subspecies does not differ mate-
rially, the species has been treated as a whole. In the first analysis
the food divides into 77.67 per cent of animal matter and 22.33 of
vegetable. The animal food consists of insects, with a few spiders
and millepeds; the vegetable part is made up of fruit, seeds, and a
number of miscellaneous substances. This ratio of animal to vege-
table does not vary greatly during the year, the greatest difference

 

1 Kellicott, D. S., Insect Life, I, 251, Feb., 1889,
14 FOOD OF WOODPECKERS OF UNITED STATES,

occurring in June, when the stomachs show 90 per cent of animal to
10 per cent of vegetable food. There is, however, no regular increase
or decrease as the seasons change, such as is noted in birds that sub-
sist upon flying insects and summer fruits. The wood-boring larve
upon which this bird so largely feeds can be obtained at all times of
the year, and the same is true of most of the vegetable food.

Animal food —The largest item in the annual diet of the hairy
woodpecker consists of the larve of cerambycid and buprestid beetles,
with a few lucanids and perhaps some other wood borers. These
insects constitute over 31 per cent of the food and are eaten in every
month of the year. The greatest amount is taken in December, when
it reaches 41 per cent of the whole; and in May, the month of least
consumption, it still amounts to over 21 per cent. This shows how
earnest these birds are in their efforts to procure this kind of food.
In summer, insects and small fruits abound—enough to satisfy
appetite and in variety apparently suited to every taste—but the birds
still search for and obtain these wood-boring grubs to the extent of a
fifth or more of their daily food, at the cost of hours of hard labor in
digging them from the tree. One stomach contained 100 of these
larvee and 83 and 50, respectively, were taken from two others. Of
the 382 stomachs, 204, or 53 per cent, contained these grubs, and 27
of them held no other food. Other beetles amount to a little more
than 9 per cent. They are distributed among a number of families,
but are nearly all more or less harmful.

Weevils (Rhynchophora), or snout beetles, aggregate a little more
than 3 per cent, and are mostly represented by the curculios (Cur-
culionide) and engraver beetles (Scolytide). One of the former,
Dorytomus mucidus, seems to be a favorite, as it was found in a num-
ber of stomachs, of which one contained 109 and another 63 indi-
viduals. The engravers were found in 18 stomachs. One contained
50 adults and 25 larve; another, 21 adults and 10 larve. They were
of such species as Tomicus cxlatus and Polygraphus rufipenms. Of
the latter, 17 individuals were taken from one stomach. <A few cara-
bids, or predaceous ground beetles, were also found. The average
amount of these useful insects consumed is sixty one-hundredths of
1 per cent (0.60). The month of greatest consumption is March,
when they are eaten to the extent of 2.46 per cent of the whole food.
Evidently this bird does little harm by eating useful beetles.

Ants stand second in importance in the diet of the hairy wood-
pecker. They amount to a little more than 17 per cent, and are
eaten in every month. In January, which is the month of greatest
consumption, they reach more than 27 per cent and nearly the same
in February. They are apparently eaten the least in November,
when they aggregate somewhat more than 10 per cent, but this may
be accidental, as both October and December show higher percent-
ages and July practically the same, In a general way these insects
HAIRY WOODPECKER. 15

are eaten most in winter and early spring, but every month has a
good percentage. Hymenoptera other than ants are taken very
irregularly and in small quantities. In September somewhat more
than 5 per cent were eaten, but stomachs taken in May and December
contained none at all, and the average for the year is but a little more
than 1 per cent. In one stomach were found sawfly larve, insects
which do not appear to be eaten extensively by birds.

Caterpillars are the next most important item of the hairy’s food.
They amount to a little less than 10 per cent, and were found in
every month. The greater number were taken in August, when they
aggregated nearly 19 per cent, while March showed the least, a little
less than 2 per cent. Many of them were wood-boring species dug
out from the wood, like the beetle larve. Prof. F. M. Webster states
that he has seen a hairy woodpecker successfully peck a hole through
the parchment-like covering of the cocoon of a Cecropia moth and
devour the contents. On examining more than 20 cocoons in a
~ grove of box elders, he found only 2 uninjured.

Bugs (Hemiptera) are evidently not a favorite food, as they were
found only to the extent of 2.41 per cent for the year. June ap-
pears to be the month of greatest consumption, with somewhat less
than 8 per cent, but four months show none at all, and bugs are very
irregularly distributed through the rest of the year. Plant-lice
(aphids) were found in 2 stomachs and scales in 4. One of the
latter was identified as the cherry or plum scale (Lulecanium cera-
sifex). Orthoptera, that is, grasshoppers, crickets, and cockroaches,
are rarely eaten by the hairy. A few eggs, probably those of tree
crickets, and the egg cases (odtheca) of cockroaches, constitute the
bulk of this food. These with a few miscellaneous insects amount to
a little more than 2 per cent for the year. Spiders with their cocoons
of eggs, including one jointed spider (Solpugide), and a few millepeds,
were eaten to the extent of about 3.5. per cent, which completes the
quota of animal food.

The following is a list of insects identified in the food of the hairy
woodpecker:

COLEOPTERA.
Agonoderus pallipes. Nyctobates pennsylvanica,
Ips fasciatus. Upis ceramboides.
Melanotus cribricollis. Boletotherus bifurcus.
Chrysobothris sp. Boletophagus corticola.
Cymatodera undulata. Dendroides sp.
Lachnosterna sp Dorytomus mucidus.
Ergates sp. Tomicus celatus.
Asemum mestum. Polygraphus rufipennis.
Eleodes sp.

HYMENOPTERA.

Ant (Camponotus pictus),
16 FOOD OF WOODPECKERS OF UNITED STATES,

DIPTERA.
Bluebottle fly (Phormia sp.).
HEMIPTERA.

Plum and cherry scale (Eulecanium cera- Harvest fly ( Tibicen rimosa).

sifex).

Vegetable food.—The vegetable food of the hairy woodpecker may
be considered under four heads: Fruit, grain, seeds, and miscellane-
ous vegetable substances. Fruit amounts to 5.22 per cent of the food,
and was contained in 54 stomachs, of which 13 held what was diag-
nosed as domestic varieties, and 41 contained wild species. Rubus
seeds (blackberries or raspberries) were identified in 4 stomachs, and
were counted as domestic fruit, but it is perhaps more probable that
they were wild. Strawberry seeds (occurring in 1 stomach) and
pulp (thought to be apple) were the only other cultivated varieties
that could be distinguished with a reasonable degree of certainty.
Evidently the hairy woodpecker does no damage by preying upon
orchard or garden products. Of wild fruit 18 species were identified.
It constitutes the great bulk of the fruit eaten, and is nearly all of
varieties not useful to man.

Corn was the only grain discovered in the food. It was found in
10 stomachs, and amounted to 1.37 per cent. In 2 stomachs taken
in August and September it was still in the milk, but all the rest was
eaten in winter, so it must have been waste. Seeds of various plants
had been eaten by 18 birds, but most of them were of little economic
value. The seed of poison ivy and poison sumac (Rhus radicans and
R. verniz) were found in 17 stomachs, and as they usually pass
through the alimentary canal uninjured, the birds do some harm by
scattering the seeds of these noxious plants. The total percentage
of seeds of all kinds is 4.50.

Cambium, or the inner bark of trees, was identified in 23 stomachs.
Evidently the hairy does but little damage by denuding trees of their
bark. Mast, made up of acorns, hazelnuts, and beechnuts, was found
in 50 stomachs. It was mostly taken in the fall and winter months,
and appears to be quite a favorite food during the cooler part of the
yeur. Dr. Merriam says that in northern New York the hairy wood-
pecker, like the other woodpeckers of the Adirondack region, feeds
largely on beechnuts. In late fall, winter, and early spring following .
good yields of beechnuts, the nuts form the principal food of the
woodpeckers. When grubs and ants are taken from decayed or de-
caying trees, bits of rotten wood, dead leaves, and other rubbish are
eaten with them. Such material was found in 72 stomachs, though
in most cases the percentage was small. Cambium, mast, and rub-
bish together constitute a little less than 11 per cent of the food.
DOWNY WOODPECKER. 17

The following is the list of fruits and seeds identified in the

food:

Foxtail grass (Ixophorus sp.).
Bayberry seed ( Myrica carolinensis).
Hazelnut (Corylus sp.).

Beechnut (Fagus americanus).
Acorn (Quercus sp.).

Mulberry (Morus rubra).

Sassafras berry (Sassafras sassafras).
Spice berry (Benzoin benzoin).
Pigweed (Amaranthus sp.).
Pokeberry (Phytolacca decandra).
Vervain ( Verbena sp.).

Blueberry ( Vaccinium sp.).
Elderberry (Sambucus canadensis).
Sour gum (Nyssa sylvatica).
Flowering dogwood (Cornus florida).

Rough-leaved dogwood (Cornus asperi-

folia).

Juneberry (Amelanchier canadensis).

Northwestern Juneberry (Amelanchier
alnifolia).

Chokeberry (Aronia sp.).

Strawberry (Fragaria sp.).

Chokecherry (Prunus virginiana).

Black orrum cherry (Prunus serotina).

Woodbine berry (Parthenocissus quinque-
folia).

Frost grape (Vitis cordifolia).

Sumac (Rhus glabra).

Poison sumac (Rhus vernix).

Poison ivy (Rhus radicans).

Black mustard (Brassica nigra).

Barberry (Berberis sp.).

Magnolia ( Magnolia fetida).

Summary.—The foregoing analysis of the food of the hairy wood-

pecker shows that it is a bird from which the orchardist and forester
have nothing to fear and much to gain. The quantity of useful insects
or economic produce which it eats is insignificant. On the other
hand, the number of destructive larve which it devours must have
a very sensible effect in reducing the abundance of these pests.

DOWNY WOODPECKER.
(Dryobates pubescens subspp.)

The downy woodpecker . (frontispiece) is the smallest member of
the family in the United States. With its various forms it occupies
practically the whole country and extends north into British America
and as far as Alaska. To the ordinary observer it is but a miniature
edition of the hairy, as the plumage is practically the same. It is also
a quieter bird and probably the least wary and suspicious member of
the family. When busy in search of food, it pays little attention to
human intruders, and often the first intimation of its presence is a
gentle tapping on a dead branch or knot only a few yards away, where
a colony of ants or some wood-boring larve have established them-
selves.

Like the hairy, it does not migrate, and may be found on its range
at any time during the year. Owing, perhaps, to the absence of so
many other birds and the leafless condition of the trees, it seems to
be most conspicuous in winter. After the summer visitors have gone
southward, the downy has a habit of associating with a mixed com-
pany of titmice, creepers, nuthatches, and sometimes a few kinglets,
who seem to be bound together by a community of interest in the

75713°—Bull. 37—11——2
18 FOOD OF WOODPECKERS OF UNITED STATES.

matter of food, for they all forage over the bark of the trunks and
branches of trees and eat practically the same things.

The following are samples of testimony as to the good work of the
downy:

The downy woodpecker, which is so common in Montana and which is so often
seen in our orchards, is the fruit-grower’s friend. Besides picking up miscellaneous
pests it locates burrows of this borer [flat-headed apple-tree borer, Chrysobothris femo-
rata] and extracts them in considerable numbers. In the older orchards of Montana
scarcely a tree can be found that does not bear the marks of woodpeckers, a large
proportion of which are made by this species.*

Mr. E. Dwight Sanderson, in speaking of the work of the downy
woodpecker, says:

He is the arch enemy of the codling moth and were it not for his good offices in
destroying the larve in the winter your apple crop might frequently be a failure.?

Prof. Samuel Aughey examined four stomachs of the downy wood-
pecker in Nebraska, all of which contained grasshoppers.

The late Dr. Townend Glover, entomologist of the Department of
Agriculture, states that the stomach of a downy woodpecker shot
in February ‘‘was filled with black ants.’’ He states further:

On one occasion a downy woodpecker was observed by myself making a number
of small, rough-edged perforations in the bark of a young ash tree, and upon examin-
ing the tree when the bird had flown it was found that wherever the bark had been
injured the young larvz of a wood-eating beetle had been snugly coiled underneath,
and had been destroyed by the bird.*

In the laboratory investigation of the food of the downy wood-
pecker 723 stomachs were examined. They were collected in 33
States, the District of Columbia, and Canada. They are quite regu-
larly distributed over the 12 months of the year, and probably repre-
sent fairly the average annual food. This is made up of 76.05 per
cent of animal matter to 23.95 per cent of vegetable.

Animal food.—Beetles taken collectively amount to 21.55 per cent,
and are the largest item of the food. Of these, a little less than 14
per cent are wood-boring larve, principally cerambycids, with some
buprestids. They were found in 289 stomachs, or about 40 per cent
of all, and 10 contained no other food. This is only about half the
amount found in the stomachs of the hairy woodpecker, and shows
that the downy pecks wood much less than the hairy. These larve
are eaten at all times of the year, though the most are taken in the
cooler months. In November they constitute 20 per cent of the
food, which is the maximum, though in the other fall months and
in the winter and spring months they do not fall far below. In June
the minimum of 4.5 per cent was eaten. The economic value of the
destruction of these larve is very great.

 

” 1 Cooley, R. A., Bull. 51, Montana Agric. Exper. Sta., p. 226, 1903.
2 Bull. 131, New Hampshire Agric. Exper. Sta. p. 18, 1907.
3 U, S. Commissioner of Agric., Rept. for 1865, pp. 37-38, 1866.
DOWNY WOODPECKER. 19

Weevils amount to a little more than 3 per cent, but appear to be
a rather favorite food, as they were found in 107 stomachs, and 4
contained 50, 36, 34, and 33 adult individuals, respectively, while in
another were 100 in the pupal stage. The engravers (Scolytide)
were identified in 12 stomachs. Other beetles aggregate a little less
than 5 per cent of the food, and are all more or less harmful except
a few carabids, which amount to 0.80 per cent for the year.

Ants are eaten by the downy to the extent of 21.36 per cent of its
diet, and are taken more regularly than any other element of the
food. October, with 9.85 per cent, appears to be the month of
minimum consumption, but it is doubtful if this would always hold,
as every other month shows at least twice this amount. Hymenop-
tera other than ants are eaten very sparingly by the downy. They
aggregate only 1.18 per cent, and in June, the month of greatest
consumption, amount to only 2.45 per cent, while none were found
in the 28 stomachs taken in May.

Hemiptera, or bugs, were found in 111 stomachs, and constitute
8.57 per cent of the food. Seales, or bark lice, were found in 41
stomachs and aphids, or plant lice, in 20. A collection of 10 stomachs
taken in Maine in March contained from 90 to 100 per cent of scales,
the average for 10 stomachs being 93.10 per cent. This would seem
to indicate that where these insects abound, the birds collect and
feed upon them almost exclusively. Scales and plant lice together
amount to 2.85 per cent of the yearly food. Four genera and two
species of scales were identified. Bugs of various other species reach
a little less than 6 per cent.

Caterpillars appear to be a very acceptable food for the downy
woodpecker, as they constitute 16.50 per cent of the yearly diet. A
large proportion of them are of the wood-boring species, and were
evidently dug out of the wood, the same as the beetle larve. Others
are surface feeders taken from leaves and bark. In this connection.
the greatest interest attaches to the pupe and larve of the codling
moth, generally recognized as the worst pest of the apple orchard.
These insects, in one stage or the other, were identified in 8 stomachs.
While this is a small number, the wonder is that the bird gets them at
all. Theeggs are minute, and as soon as they hatch the larve bore into
the fruit, where they feed in security, though it is claimed by some.
observers that woodpeckers sometimes dig them out. When full
grown, they leave the apple and crawl into some cranny, where they
change to pupex. It is in this condition, i. e., as larvee full grown or
pupe, that they are secured by the birds. One stomach of the
downy contained 18, and another 16 of these grubs. As the adult
moth flies by night and lies hidden during the day, it is probably not
often taken by birds. In any case, it would be hard to identify in
the stomachs. Various insects, including grasshoppers and flies,
20 FOOD OF WOODPECKERS OF UNITED STATES.

make up about 2 per cent of the food. Grasshoppers, though so
acceptable to many birds, were found in only 2 stomachs of the
downy. On the other hand, eggs of grasshoppers, crickets, katydids,
and cockroaches were identified in 48 stomachs, mostly taken in the
fall and winter. Eleven stomachs from Kansas collected in December
deserve special notice. Eight of them contained the eggs of grass-
hoppers to an average extent of 10 per cent of all the contents.
Seven stomachs taken in Illinois in March contained grasshoppers’
eggs to an average of over 46 per cent of the whole food. This is evi-
dence of valuable service and emphasizes the fact that this bird
resorts to the ground for food in case of necessity.

Miscellaneous insects amount to but 2.80 per cent, but among them
is one that deserves particular notice. This is the immature form of
the dobson (Corydalis cornutas), a large aquatic insect of nocturnal
habits, seldom seen except when it approaches a bright light. The
larve are commonly known as hellgramites, and are usually found
under stones in the beds of streams, though sometimes seen among wet
rubbish near water. How a woodpecker could obtain these creatures
is a mystery, but 1 stomach of the downy contained the remains of at
least 4 of the larve, and in another was 1 in the pupal stage.

Spiders, millepeds, pseudoscorpions, sowbugs, and a few snails
aggregate 4.09 per cent, and complete the quota of the animal food.

The following is a list of insects identified in the food:

COLEOPTERA.
Amara sp. Platydema sp.
Gynandropus hylacis. Helops xreus.
Stenolophus sp. Notoxus alamedx.
Ips fasciatus. Pandeletejus hilaris.
Tenebrioides bimaculata. Dorytomus mucidus.
Dolopius lateralis. Dorytomus brevicollis.
JWelanotus sp. Desmoris constrictus.
Chrysobothris sp. Gymnetron teter.
Catorama sp. Conotrachelus naso.
Aphodius inquinatus. Cryptorhynchus ferratus.
Elaphidion sp. Centrinus sp.
Rhagium lineatum. Balaninus sp.
Oberea sp. Xyloterus bivittatus.
Diachus auratus. Aylesinus aculeatus.
Gastroidea cyanea. Piezocorynus mixtus.
Melasoma californica.

HYMENOPTERA.

Ants (Camponotus marginatus and (. pennsylvanicus).
LEPIDOPTERA.

Tent caterpillar ( Malacosoma sp.). Codling moth (Carpocapsa pomonella).
Cotton bollworm (Heliothis obsoletus).
DOWNY WOODPECKER. 21

HEMIPTERA.
False chinch bug (Piesma cinerea). Oak scale (Kermes sp.).
Red bug (Largus succinctus). Olive scale (Saissetia olex).
White scale (Aspidiotus sp.). Plum and cherry scale (Eulecanium cera-
sifex).
ORTHOPTERA.

Large meadow grasshopper (Orchelimum glaberrimum).

NEUROPTERA.

Dobson (Corydalis cornuta).

Vegetable food —Fruit was eaten to the extent of 5.85 per cent of
the whole food. Most of it is of useless wild varieties. Ten species
were identified by their seeds, of which the Rubus fruits, i. e., rasp-
berries or blackberries, might have been cultivated, but probably
were not. They were found in only 1 stomach. A number of
stomachs contained fruit pulp, which could not be further identified
and may have been cultivated. Corn was found in 20 stomachs,
most of it taken in the winter and early spring months, so that it
was waste grain, except that found in 2 stomachs in August and
September, which was probably in the milk. A few other stomachs
held what was thought to be grain of some kind, but was too finely
ground for further identification. Grain of all kinds aggregates
1.66 per cent.

The poison Rhuses (Rhus radicans, R. vernix, R. diversiloba, and
R. toxicodendron) seem to afford a favorite winter food for many
birds. While the seeds themselves are so thoroughly protected by
a hard, horny coating that they are seldom broken in the stomachs,
they are overlaid by a white waxy pulp, which easily comes off, and
is probably very nutritious. These seeds were found in 86 stomachs
of the downy woodpecker, and they amount to 5.93 per cent of the
food. Unfortunately they germinate freely after they have been
voided, and probably these birds are the most efficient agents in
distributing these noxious plants. Mast, i. e., acorns, beechnuts,
chestnuts, hazelnuts, chinquapins, with a few other smaller seeds,
amounts to 8.20 per cent of the food. This food is eaten in every
month—the most in January and the least in July. A little cambium
and some rubbish make up the remainder of the vegetable food,
2.31 per cent. The charge sometimes made that the downy injures
trees by eating the inner bark is disproved. It eats cambium rarely
and in small quantities.

The following seeds and fruits were found in the downy’s food:

Bayberry (Ayrica carolinensis). Sorrel (Rumer sp.).
Hornbeam (Ostrya virginiana). Smartweed (Polygonum sp.).
Beech (Fagus americanus). Pokeweed (Phytolacca decandra).

Oak (Quercus sp.). Blackberry or raspberry (Rubus sp.).
22 FOOD OF WOODPECKERS OF UNITED STATES,

Mountain ash (Sorbus americana). Alternate-leaved dogwood (Cornus alter-
Juneberry (Amelanchier canadensis). nifolia).
Poison ivy (Rhus radicans). Mullein ( Verbascum thapsus).
Poison oak (Rhus diversiloba). Elderberry (Sambucus canadensis).
Woodbine (Parthenocissus quinquefolia). Sunflower (Helianthus sp.).
Flowering dogwood (Cornus florida). Blueberry (Vaccinium sp.).
Rough-leaved dogwood (Cornus asperi-

folia).

Summary.—The foregoing discussion of the food of the downy
woodpecker shows it to be one of our most useful species. The
only complaint against the bird is on the score of disseminating the
poisonous species of Rhus. However, it is fortunate that the bird
can live on this food when it is difficult to procure anything else.
The insect food selected by the downy is almost all of species econom-
ically harmful.

RED-COCKADED WOODPECKER.

(Dryobates borealis.)

The red-cockaded woodpecker is an inhabitant of the Lower
Austral zone of the Southeastern States from southern Virginia to
eastern Texas and southern Missouri. Pine woods are its favorite
haunts, and a large percentage of its food is obtained from pine trees.
No complaints have yet been heard that this bird harms crops or
forest trees, nor do the contents of its stomach indicate that such is
the case. So far as known, it does not frequent orchards or cultivated
land.

In the investigation of this bird’s food 76 stomachs were available,
taken in the four States of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Texas.
They were collected in every month except June and July. Of the
total food 81.06 per cent was composed of insects, and the remainder,
18.94 per cent, of vegetable matter, mostly seeds of conifers.

Animal food.—Useful Coleoptera, i. e., carabids, were found in 7
stomachs, and amount to 0.53 per cent of the whole food. Other
beetles, a large part of them the larvee of wood-boring species, aggre-
gate 10.49 per cent of the annual diet. Of these a number were
weevils or snout beetles. Of the two identified beetles in the list
which follows, the first belongs to the Chrysomelide or leaf-eating
beetles; the other, Trogosita virescens, is one of the most beneficial
species, since it preys upon the more destructive bark beetles and
bark-boring grubs. Ants are evidently the favorite food. They were
eaten in every month of which we have a record, and amount to a good
percentage in each. December, with a percentage of 27.43, was
apparently the month of least consumption, and September shows the
maximum of 79 per cent, but we have hardly enough data to obtain
final figures. The average for the year is 56.75 per cent, a record
which is exceeded by that of only one other bird yet studied.
NUTTALL WOODPECKER. 23

Hemiptera are eaten to the extent of 8.16 per cent of the food, and’
a good proportion of them are scales or bark lice. The others are
mostly pentatomids or soldier-bugs. Nearly all were taken in the
five months from December to April, inclusive, and two-thirds of them
in December and January. ‘These insects, and especially the penta-
tomids, are lovers of warm weather and sunshine, and many of them
live on fruit. It seems probable that this bird gets them from their
hibernating places. Grasshoppers, crickets, cockroaches, caterpillars,
white ants (Termes), and spiders make up the rest of the animal food,
5.13 per cent. The cockroaches were in the form of their egg cases
(odtheca).

The following is a list of insects identified in the stomachs:

COLEOPTERA.
Gastroidea sp. Trogosita chloridea.
Trogosita virescens. Tomicus cacographus.
HYMENOPTERA.
Ant (Camponotus soctus). Ant (Cremastogaster leviuscula).
HEMIPTERA.

Green tree bug (Nezara hilaris).

Vegetable food.—The greater part of the vegetable food consists of
mast, mostly composed of the seeds of conifers. They were found in
26 of the 76 stomachs, and appear to be a somewhat regular article of
diet, especially in the colder months. The total amount for the year
is 11.13 per cent. Fruit pulp, poison-ivy seeds, bayberry seeds, seeds
not identified, cambium, and rubbish each occurred in a few stomachs,
and altogether amount to about 8 per cent of the food. Fruit pulp
was found in 5 stomachs, but none of it could be further identified.
Cambium was contained in 4 stomachs, and seeds of poison ivy in 1.
Evidently this food has little economic interest.

The following seeds were identified in the food:

Bayberry (.Myrica carolinevsis). Magnolia (Magnolia fetida).
Poison ivy (Rhus radicans). Pine (Pinus sp.).

Summary.—From this brief review of the food of the red-cockaded
woodpecker it is evident that it does little if any damage by eating
products of husbandry, and that it does good work in the forest by
devouring wood-boring larve. No doubt it aids in distributing the
seeds of the pines upon which it feeds.

NUTTALL WOODPECKER.
(Dryobates nuttallt.)

This bird is much like the downy in its quiet demeanor, its lack
of fear of man, and its unobtrusive industry in searching for food.
It is only a trifle larger than the downy, and its foraging and nesting
24 FOOD OF WOODPECKERS OF UNITED STATES.

habits are similar. Its range is practically confined to California,
though it extends slightly beyond the boundaries at the northern
and southern ends of the State.

The food of the Nuttall is much like that of the downy, the principal
difference being in the relative proportions of the constituents. Only
53 stomachs of the Nuttall were available for examination—entirely
too few to furnish final results, but enough to give an idea of the
general character of the food. In the first analysis the food divides
into 79.41 per cent of animal matter and 20.59 of vegetable. This
differs but little from the record of the downy.

Animal food.—The largest item in the diet of the Nuttall consists
of beetles of several families. The total for the year is 28.86 per
cent. Of these the useful Carabide are barely represented. The
remainder are divided among about a dozen families, of which the
very harmful Cerambycide and Elateride in the larval stage are the
most prominent. Ants amount to 8.19 per cent and are unevenly
distributed, and the indications are that the stomachs are entirely
too few to give trustworthy data on this item. Hymenoptera other
than ants were eaten to the extent of 3.50 per cent. This again is
not a reliable result, as nearly all of them were found in one stomach
taken in December. Hemiptera, or bugs, amounted to 14.76 per
cent. A few of these were scales and plant lice, but the majority
were of the larger species. Two stomachs contained each between
30 and 40 box-elder bugs (Leptocoris trivittatus). These insects
have a way of becoming very abundant at times and making a
nuisance of themselves by invading buildings in search of winter
quarters. Caterpillars stand third in the dietary of the Nuttall
woodpecker and are eaten more regularly than any other food except
beetles. They amount to 14.21 per cent. No special pest was iden-
tified, but some were evidently wood-boring species. A few flies,
raphidians, pseudoscorpions, spiders, and millepeds make up the
rest of the animal food, 9.89 per cent.

Following is a list of insects identified in the stomachs of the
Nuttall:

COLEOPTERA.
Glyptoscelis albidus. Blapstinus sp.
Gastrovdea sp. Balaninus sp.
HEMIPTERA.
Sinea diadema. Leptocoris trivittatus.
ISOPTERA.

White ant (Termes sp.).

Vegetable food—Fruit was eaten to the extent of 8.49 per cent.
It was found in 15 stomachs, of which 2 contained rubus seeds;
5, elderberries; and the rest, pulp not further identified, except that
THREE-TOED WOODPECKERS. 25

in 1 stomach it was thought to be apple. Flower buds were found
in 1 stomach. Poison oak (Rhus diversiloba) was noted in 9 stom-
achs, mast in 5, cambium in 2, and rubbish, etc., in 5. Altogether
they amounted to 12.10 per cent, and made up the quota of vegetable
food. None of them was eaten to a sufficient extent to be of any
economic interest.

The following fruits were found in the stomachs:

Blackberry or raspberry (Rubus sp.). Poison oak (Rhus diversiloba).
Elderberry (Sambucus glauca).

Summary.—lIn its animal food the Nuttall woodpecker is beyond
criticism. Practically all of the insects eaten are either pests or of
no positive benefit. While some fruit is eaten, it consists largely,
and perhaps entirely, of wild varieties. Probably the worst that
can be said of the bird is that it helps in the distribution of poison-
oak seeds. ,

THREE-TOED WOODPECKERS,

(Picoides arcticus and P. americanus.)

The three-toed woodpeckers are residents of the Boreal zones of
North America, in Alaska, Canada, the northeastern United States,
and in the mountains of the Western States, south to southern New
Mexico and to central California. The two species, including the
two subspecies of americanus, are so similar in habits that they may
be treated together. All are residents of coniferous forests, from
which they sometimes wander a short distance in winter. The
trunks of scaly-barked conifers, such as spruces, hemlocks, tama-
racks, and lodgepole pines, are their favorite hunting grounds, and
here they excavate burrows in which they rear their young and find
shelter at night.

In their choice of food these two species are as closely allied as in
other respects. The great bulk consists of the larve of wood-boring
beetles or moths. These are eaten with great regularity throughout
the year, but somewhat more in the colder months than in summer.
In the dead of winter, when all insect life is apparently quiescent,
these birds still obtain their daily food. Flies and bees no longer
sport in the sunshine; butterflies and flowers are replaced by sleet
and snow; the beetles are either dead or snugly ensconced in crevices
in the bark, awaiting the return of warmth, while the larvee repose in
their burrows of solid wood, apparently safe from all disturbance.
But undaunted by cold and undeterred by hard work, our intrepid
little friends tear open the secure retreats in the bark, or chisel into
the solid wood, and feast upon the luckless insects.

Unfortunately only 28 stomachs of Picoides arcticus and 23 of P.
americanus were available for examination. There are few birds

 

1 Another species of Dryobates (D. arizonx), of which no stomachs have been received, inhabits the
mountains from northeastern Arizona and northwestern New Mexico south into Mexico.
26 FOOD OF WOODPECKERS OF UNITED STATES,

which eat more of the pests of the forests than do the three-toed
woodpeckers; and while we have no doubt determined the principal
food factors, there are many minor questions for the solution of
which additional material is necessary.

Tn the first analysis the food divides into 88.69 per cent of animal
matter to 11.31 of vegetable for arcticus, and 94.06 per cent of animal
to 5.94 of vegetable for americanus. The largest item with both
species is wood-boring coleopterous larve. These amount to 64.25
per cent with arcticus and 60.66 with americanus. Caterpillars,
which in this case are mostly wood-boring species, amount to 12.88
and 14.45 per cent for the two bird respectively. The total of wood-
boring larve, including both caterpillars and beetles, is 77.13 per
cent for arcticus and 75.11 per cent for americanus, or more than
three-fourths of the food of each species. Stomachs containing 15
to 20 of these grubs are very common, and one held 34. Probably
the stomach is filled several times each day, and it does not seem
unreasonable to assume that a bird will eat 50 of these insects every
24 hours for 6 months and at least 25 daily for the other half of the
year. At this rate one bird will annually destroy 13,675 of these
destructive grubs. If this assumption be true, the birds of these
two species must destroy an immense quantity of wood-boring insects,
even if they do not cause any perceptible diminution in their num-
bers. Beetles other than wood-borers amount to 3.41 per cent for
arcticus and 10.39 for americanus. A considerable proportion of
these were weevils, including quite a number of engravers (Scoly-
tide). They are, however, eaten so irregularly as to indicate that
they are taken only incidentally and are not sought, as are the wood-
boring grubs. Ants constitute 6.35 per cent of the food of areticus
and 8.29 of that of americanus. None of these were taken in winter,
and most of them were eaten in spring and summer. The Picoides
do not belong to the ant-eating group of woodpeckers. A few other
insects and spiders amount to less than 1 per cent for each species
and make up the remainder of the animal food.

Vegetable food.—Vegetable matter constitutes 11.31 per cent of the
stomach contents of arcticus and 5.94 per cent of that of americanus.
It can all be included in four items: Fruit, mast, cambium, and
rubbish. Fruit skins were found in only 1 stomach of americanus
and mast in bat 1 stomach of arcticus. Cambium was found in 10
stomachs of arcticus and 8 of americanus. This indicates that these
birds do some pecking at the bark of living trees for other purposes
than getting insects, but no complaints have yet been made, from
which we infer that little or no damage is done; in fact the amount
contained in the stomachs is not large, a little less than 10 per cent.
Rubbish, consisting principally of rotten wood, was found in 9
YELLOW-BELLIED WOODPECKER OR SAPSUCKER. 27

stomachs. Where a bird pecks wood as much as do these, it is no
wonder that some of it is swallowed with the grubs that are embed-
ded therein.

Summary.—The foregoing discussion of the food of the two species
of Picoides shows that these birds act as ‘‘conservators of the forest”
in the strongest sense. Three-fourths of their food consists of the
direst enemies of forest trees. In the Report on Forest Insects by
the United States Entomological Commission, some 25 species of
cerambycid and buprestid beetles are noted as preying upon the ash
tree and 35 upon the pine. Since the family Cerambycide contains
upward of 7,500 species, of which 600 are found in America, since all
pass their larval stage within the substance of some tree or woody
plant, and since many remain in the larval state two or three years,
evidently they inflict upon forest trees and other plants an immense
amount of damage. Probably there are not many other agencies
more destructive to timber than this family of beetles. Nor is timber
safe even after it hasbeen cut. Logs lying in the mill yard or forest
may be ruined in a single season if these creatures are not prevented
from depositing their eggs. So long do some of these larve live in the
wood that they sometimes emerge after it has been converted into
furniture and passed into household use. A very efficient check upon
the undue increase of these insects is found in the woodpeckers,
especially the two species of Picoides. In orchards, or in parks, it
may be easy to combat insect enemies by insecticides or other arti-
ficial means, but in the forest this is more difficult and expensive, and
it behooves the forester to take advantage of all helpers which Nature
has provided; among these, insectivorous birds must take high rank.
It is unfortunate that in most places three-toed woodpeckers are not
as numerous as many other species, and for this reason they should be
protected and encouraged in every possible way.

YELLOW-BELLIED WOODPECKER OR SAPSUCKER.
(Sphyrapicus varius and subsp.)

The yellow-bellied woodpecker or sapsucker (Pl. II) is probably
the most migratory of all our woodpeckers. It breeds throughout
the whole of southern Canada from ocean to ocean and thence south-
ward to northeastern California, western Texas, northern Missouri,
northern Ohio, and Massachusetts, and in the mountains south to
North Carolina. It winters from near the southern limit of the
breeding range south to Mexico, Cuba, and Costa Rica.

It is to this species that the term sapsucker is most often and most
justly applied, for it drills holes in the bark of certain trees and
drinks the sap. It feeds also on cambium, insects, and wild fruits
and berries.
98 FOOD OF WOODPECKERS OF UNITED STATES.

In writing of the habits of these woodpeckers in northern New
York, in 1878, Dr. Merriam states:

They really do considerable mischief by drilling holes in the bark of apple, thorn-
apple, and mountain ash trees in such a way as to form girdles of punctures, some-
times 2 feet or more in breadth (up and down), about the trunks and branches.
* * * The holes, which are sometimes merely single punctures, and sometimes
squarish spaces (multiple punctures) nearly half an inch across, are placed so near
together that not infrequently they cover more of the tree than the remaining bark.
Hence, more than half of the bark is sometimes removed from the girdled portions,
and the balance often dries up and comes off. Therefore it is not surprising that
trees which have been extensively girdled generally die, and mountain ash are much
more prone to do so than either apple or thornapple trees, due, very likely, to their
more slender stems.'

The late Frank Bolles has published some interesting detailed
observations respecting the food habits of the sapsucker. His
conclusions are:

That the yellow-bellied woodpecker is‘in the habit for successive years of drilk
ing the canoe birch, red maple, red oak, white ash, and probably other trees, for the
purpose of taking from them the elaborated sap, and in some cases parts of the cam-
bium layer; that the birds consume the sap in large quantities for its own sake and
not for insect matter which such sap may chance occasionally to contain; that the
sap attracts many insects of various species, a few of which form a considerable part
of the food of this bird, but whose capture does not occupy its time to anything like
the extent to which sap drinking occupiesit; * * * that the forest trees attacked
by them generally die, possibly in the second or third year of use.”

Mr. Bolles shot 8 sapsuckers in July and August, 1890. Their
stomachs ‘‘were well filled with insects.’”’ Some of these were
examined by Mr. Samuel H. Scudder, who states:

The insects in the different stomachs are in all cases almost exclusively composed of
the harder chitinous parts of ants. Ina cursory examination I find little else, though.
one or two beetles are represented, and No. 4 must have swallowed an entire wasp of
the largest size, his head and wings attesting thereto.*

Mr. Bolles proved by experiment that concentrated sap (saturated
with sugar) is not sufficient to sustain hfe, even with the addition of
a small percentage of insects. The logical inference is that sap,
while liked by the birds and consumed in large quantities, holds a
subordinate place as an article of food.

J. Maurice Thompson says of the sapsucker:

Its food is sap or juices of green trees. Iteatsnothingelse. * * * The principal
trees from which it obtains its food are the maples, hickories, cedar, apple, pear,
southern pine, and swamp ash.*

In speaking of this species Dr. Hopkins mentions the finding of
a small pitch pine tree that had recently died from injuries by wood-
peckers. The bird evidently attacks the healthy tree for the sole

 

1 Bull. Nuttall Ornith. Club, IV, 3-5, January, 1879.
% Auk, VIII, 270, July, 1891.

+ Auk, VIL 269, July, 1891.

4 Appleton’s Journal, VIII, 631, Dec. 7, 1872.
YELLOW-BELLIED WOODPECKER OR SAPSUCKER. 29

purpose of feeding on the inner bark. Thus, instead of destroying
insects, it made the conditions favorable for the attack of bark beetles
and other insects which had bred in the bark and wood in considerable
numbers. ‘To anticipate the possible conclusion that the woodpecker
intended to thus trap the insects and return to eat them, Dr. Hopkins
added that at the time the observations were made, the insects had
not been molested.

This investigation of the food-of the yellow-bellied sapsucker is
based upon examination of the contents of 313 stomachs, collected in
24 States, Canada, and the District of Columbia, and distributed over
12 months of the year. Of this food 49.31 per cent is animal matter
and 50.69 vegetable. This is the first species discussed in which the
vegetable part of the diet is greater than the animal. This is true
of 5 of the 16 species under consideration.

Animal food.—Useful beetles, i. e., predaceous ground beetles and
ladybirds (Coccinellide), are eaten by the sapsucker to the extent of
only 0.91 per cent of the whole food. Other beetles amount to 4.54
per cent, and are made up of weevils, dung beetles (Aphodius), and
click beetles, with a few cerambycid larve. Ants amount to 34.31
per cent of the whole food, or 69 per cent of the animal part. They
are evidently favorite food, being eaten quite regularly through the
year, although the months from May to August, inclusive, show the
highest percentages, averaging over 68 percent. Other Hymenoptera
amount to 2.64 per cent, and are very irregularly taken. October
appears to be the month of greatest consumption, with 15.07 per cent.
Hemiptera are eaten very sparingly. Scales (Coccide) were found in
two stomachs, and in one were identified as the plum scale (Fulecan-
ium cerasifex); these, with a few stink bugs, amount to a little less
than 1 per cent for the year. A few miscellaneous insects and spiders
aggregate 5.44 percent. The insects consist of May flies, stone flies,
grasshoppers, crickets, tree hoppers, caterpillars and moths, and
flies (Diptera). A few eggs were found, probably those of the tent
caterpillars (Malacosoma).

The following is a list of insects identified in the stomachs:

COLEOPTERA.
Coccinella 9-notata. Aphodius inquinatus.
Coccinella sanguinea. Dichelonycha sp.
Adalia bipunctata. Xanthonia 10-notata.
Anatis sp. Diabrotica 12-punctata.
Lemophleus biguttatus. Canifa pallipes.
Onthophagus sp. Pandeletejus hilaris.
Aphodius fimetarius. Balaninus sp.

HYMENOPTERA.

Vespa maculata. Pimpla sp.

Vespa arenaria.

 

1 Hopkins, A. D., Bull. 56, West Virginia Agric. Exper. Sta., p. 355, 1890.
30 FOOD OF WOODPECKERS OF UNITED STATES.

HEMIPTERA.
Plum or cherry scale (Eulecanium cerasifex).
LEPIDOPTERA.
Tent caterpillar (Malacosoma sp.).

Vegetable food—The two principal items of vegetable food are
fruit and cambium. Twenty-two species of wild fruit and two of
cultivated were identified. In general the least fruit is eaten in spring
and summer and the most in fall and winter. Altogether it was found
in 118 stomachs, none in May and the most, 71.26 per cent, in Novem-
ber. It was evidently mainly berries left on the bushes. Seeds of
Rubus fruit, which may be either wild or cultivated, were found in two
stomachs, and two contained what was thought to beapple pulp. The
total of the fruit is 28.06 per cent of the food, but evidently has little
economic interest. The apple was probably the only cultivated
variety and this was eaten only twice. Cambium, or the inner bark of
trees, was eaten every month, but mostly in winter and spring. The
greatest consumption is in April, 48.95 per cent, and the least in
November, 1.53 per cent. It was found in 127 stomachs and was the
entire contents of 12. The average for the year is 16.54 per cent,
which is exceeded by only two items—fruit and ants. The subjects
of cambium and sap sucking have been discussed on a previous page.
Mast, poison Rhus seeds, mullein, and rubbish collectively make up
the remaining 6.09 per cent. Mast was found in 15 stomachs, and is
evidently not specially sought. Poison ivy seed was contained in
seven stomachs and poison sumac in one, so the sapsucker does little
harm by distributing the seed of these noxious plants. Rubbish was
found in 48 stomachs. It was mostly bits of the outer bark of trees,
evidently swallowed when pecking for cambium.

The following fruits and seeds were found in the food:

Red cedar ( Juniperus virginiana). Black alder (Ilex verticillata).

Greenbrier (Smilax sp.). Burning bush (Ewonymus americanus).

Hackberry (Celtis occidentalis). Frost grape (Vitis cordifolia).

Sassafras (Sassafras sassafras). Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinque-

Blackberry or raspberry (Rubus sp.). folia).

Shad or service berry (Amelanchier cana- Flowering dogwood (Cornus florida).
densis). Sour gum (.Vyssa sylvatica).

Choke cherry (Prunus virginiana). Blueberry ( Vaccinium sp.).

Black cherry (Prunus serotina). Black nightshade (Solanum nigrum).

Poison sumac (Rhus verniz). Mullein ( Verbascum thapsus).

Poison ivy (Rhus radicans). Red-berried elder (Sambucus pubens).

American holly (Ilex opaca). Elder (Sambucus sp.).

Ink berry (Ilex glabra). Poke berry (Phytolacca decandra).

Swamp holly (Ilex decidua).

Summary.—In the animal food of the yellow-bellied sapsucker,
ants are the most important item, and while of no great economic
RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER. 31

interest they must be reckoned in the bird’s favor. On the other
hand, the damage this sapsucker inflicts in eating the cambium and
sap of trees is so serious that it more than counterbalances any good
that the bird does in other directions. Investigations show that the
damage to timber, especially in the Southern States, is extensive and
serious.*

RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER.

(Sphyrapicus ruber and subsp.)

The red-breasted sapsucker is confined to the Pacific coast region,
and ranges from central Lower California in winter, north in summer
through California, Oregon, and Washington to Alaska. Naturally
it seems to be a forest bird, but it takes kindly to orchards and
ranches. It is migratory to a slight extent, but summers as far
south as the San Bernardino Mountains. It makes, however, a
minor migration in many localities by descending the mountains to
the valleys, in which it winters.

Speaking guardedly of this bird, Maj. Charles Bendire says:

I am inclined to think that this species does not indulge in the habit of girdling
trees for the sap and the soft inner bark (cambium) to the same extent that Sphyra-
picus varius does; at any rate, not during the breeding season.”

On the other hand, Prof. Cook, of Claremont, California, gives the
following direct testimony:

Sphyrapicus ruber is the sapsucker of southern California. It taps fruit trees, espe-
cially prune and apricot, and evergreens. Its mischief seems much more serious
than that of its congener of the East, as trees are frequently killed by reason of its
punctures, although these latter are more distant and less numerous. I never knew
a tree to be killed by the sapsuckers in Michigan. The evil in California is wrought
in summer, when the dry season has enfeebled the tree, and this is a possible expla-
nation of the more serious harm to the trees of this region.’

In the face of this conflicting testimony we may infer that the
habits of the bird vary with the locality.

In Oregon the writer observed trees of white birch and mountain
ash growing in a village yard which were badly injured by this bird.

Only 34 stomachs of this species were available for examination,
and none were taken in the months from April to August, inclusive,
while 29, or five-sixths of all, were collected in October, November,
and December. Only some general ideas of the food can be expected
from so little material.

In the first analysis we find practically 69 per cent of animal food
to 31 of vegetable.

Animal food.—This species is a much greater insect eater than
S. varius. Ants, the largest item, amount to 42.49 per cent. They

 

1A bulletin upon this subject is in preparation by W. L. McAtee.
2 Bendire, Maj. Charles, Life Histories of North American Birds, II, 94, 1895.
8Cook, A. J., Auk, XIII, 85, 1896.
82 FOOD OF WOODPECKERS OF UNITED STATES.

were eaten freely in every month in which stomachs were taken
except February, and 4 stomachs contained nothing else. Other
Hymenoptera aggregate a little more than 7 per cent. Beetles of all
kinds amount to only 4 per cent, and none of them are of useful
species. The greater number belong to the family Chrvsomelide, or
leaf-eaters. Diachus auratus was the only one identified. One
stomach contained the remains of Rhinosymus pallipes, a member of
the Pythidew, a small and rather rare family. Caterpillars were
found in 2 stomachs, locust eggs in-1, and a caterpillar formed the
entire contents of 1. All these amount to 15 per cent, and make up
the rest of the animal food.

Vegetable food.—Of the vegetable food, fruit constitutes 12.69 per
cent. Berries of the pepper tree (Schinus molle) were found in 3
stomachs, cascara (Rhamnus californicus) in 1, pulp not further
identified in 3, and figsin 1. Only the last is of any economic import-
ance. Seeds of poison oak were found in 4 stomachs, wax myrtle
(Vyrica californica) in 1,and unidentified seedsin 1. Seeds altogether
amount to 5.96 per cent. Cambium was found in only 6 stomachs,
but aggregated 11.13 per cent, which is three-fourths as much as was
eaten by S. varius. Nearly all that had taken it at all had eaten a
good percentage. Stomach examinations alone do not enable us to
settle the status of the bird, for which more material and some field
observation will be necessary.

Summary.—lt appears that the red-breasted sapsucker attacks and
injures trees, but whether it is as destructive as its eastern relative is
not yet known, and more material and further observations are
necessary to settle the question.

WILLIAMSON SAPSUCKER.
(Sphyrapicus thyroideus.)

The Williamson sapsucker is a bird of mountains and evergreen
forests. Its range extends from the eastern slope of the Rocky
Mountains westward to the Pacific, and from Arizona and New
Mexico northward to British Columbia; south in. winter to Mexico.
The bird is likely to be of little economic interest except in connection
with forests. Only 17 stomachs of this species have been received by
the Biological Survey, and all but 2 of these were collected in the
mooths from June to September, inclusive. Conclusions based on the
examination of so little material must be considered as only tentative.
In the first analysis of the food it divides into 87 per cent of animal
matter and 13 of veretable.

Animal food.—Of the animal food a mere trace was shown of click-
beetles (Elateridz) and less than 1 per cent of crane flies (Tipulide).
The remainder, 86 per cent, consists entirely of ants, with which 7
stomachs were entirely filled. This record places this bird at the
Bull. 37, Biological Survey. U. S. Dept. of Agriculture Piate II

 

YELLOW- BELLIED SAPSUCKER.
Bull 37, Biological Survey, U.S. Dept of Agriculture Piate Ill

 

RED-HEADED WOODPECKER (ADULT AND YOUNG).
PILEATED WOODPECKER, 33

head of the woodpeckers in ant eating, but the material is too scanty
to warrant final conclusions.

Vegetable food.—Fruit pulp in 1 stomach and rubbish in another,
each amounted to less than 1 per cent of the year’s food. Cambium
occurred in 5 stomachs, and formed the bulk of the vegetable food,
12.55 per cent of the whole.

Summary.—These results would indicate a very limited diet for this
bird, but it is altogether probable that a greater number of stomachs
would materially modify these figures. They show, however, that
the bird eats ants and cambium, if they are not conclusive as to what

it does not eat.
PILEATED WOODPECKER.

(Phieotomus pileatus and subspp.)

The pileated woodpecker, logeock, woodcock, or cock of the woods,
as it is variously called, is the largest member of the family now living
in the United States, except the ivory-billed woodpecker, which is
very rare. The logcock is essentially a forest bird, and is rarely found
except in rather extensive tracts of timber. It is usually shy and
retiring, difficult to approach, and better known by its work than by
sight. Its large size, loud voice, and habit of hammering upon dead
limbs combine to make it a conspicuous inhabitant of the forest. Its
strength is wonderful, and it is hard to believe that a bird can so com-
pletely destroy a-stump or log. Strips of decayed wood 2 feet long,
4 inches wide, and an inch thick are often torn from a stump and
thrown several yards away.

Woodpeckers signal each other by hammering upon a dead and
hollow limb or trunk of a tree, or upon the metallic cornice of a build-
ing. The pileated is an adept at such telegraphing, and its tattoo on
a particularly resonant piece of timber can be heard for more than a
mile.

The pileated woodpecker seems to be distributed over the United
States in general, and north to Canada, but is absent from some large
areas, particularly in the southwestern United States, even where
there are extensive forests and other conditions apparently suited to
its tastes. It is not migratory in the usual sense, but in winter
wanders extensively, usually accompanied by its mate, which leads
to the belief that it mates for life.

In the laboratory investigation of this bird’s food 80 stomachs
were available. They were collected in 14 States, the District of
Columbia, and Canada, and are distributed in every month, though
May is represented by only 1. The animal food amounts to 72.88
per cent and the vegetable to 27.12. The former consists principally
of beetles and ants, and the latter of wild fruits.

75713°—Bull. 37—11——3
34 FOOD OF WOODPECKERS OF UNITED STATES.

Animal food.—Beetles amount to 22.01 per cent. Neaily all were
in the larval stage, and evidently were dug out of dead and decaying
wood. They belong to the Cerambycidx, the Buprestide, and the
Elateride, all of them wood-borers, with some Lucanide and Scara-
beide, many species of which breed in rotting timber. Carabide,
or useful ground-beetles, were found in only 6 stomachs and amount
to a small fraction of 1 per cent.

Ants aggregate 39.91 per cent and constitute more than half of the
animal food. They were found in 48 stomachs, and in one, 2,600
were counted; in another, 2,080; and in a third, 2,000. They are
mostly of the larger species that live in decaying timber. These two
items, beetles and ants, make up the bulk of the animal food, 61.92
per cent. It is evident that they are the objects of the bird’s search
when he is foraging over the trunks of dead trees or logs, and that
other insects are taken only incidentally. Flies, caterpillars, frag-
ments of cockroaches and their egg cases (odtheca), bits of grass-
hoppers, some sawflies, and white ants, no one of which amounts to a
respectable percentage, aggregate 10.96 per cent, the balance of the
animal food.

The following is a list of insects identified in the stomachs:

COLEOPTERA.
Anisodactylus sp. Upis ceramboides.
Allorhina nitida. Chalcophora sp.
Cyclocephala sp.
HYMENOPTERA (ANTS).
- Camponotus pennsylvanicus. Cremastogaster leviuscula.

Camponotus herculeanus.

LEPIDOPTERA.
Caterpillar (Scolecocampa liburna).

Vegetable food.—The largest item of vegetable food, and in fact the
only one of importance, is wild fruit, which amounts to 22.56 per cent,
and of which 19 species were identified. This is probably eaten in
every month, but in the stomachs examined none was found in April,
May, or June; but as only 6 stomachs were collected in those months,
the record is not conclusive. The only part of the fruit which can
possibly have any economic interest issome Rubus seeds found in 1
stomach and some unidentified seeds in 5, but probably these were wild
like the others. Seeds of poison ivy (or poison oak), poison sumac,
dwarf sumac, a little cambium, and mast, with some rubbish, alto-
gether amount to 4.56 per cent and complete the vegetable food.

The following vegetable food was found in the stomachs:
« RED-HEADED WOODPECKER. 385

Greenbrier (Smilax glauca). Frost grape ( Vitis cordifolia).

Cat brier (Smilax rotundifolia). Woodbine (Parthenocissus quinquefolia).

Laurel-leaved greenbrier (Smilax lauri- Flowering dogwood (Cornus florida).
folia). Rough-leaved dogwood (Cornus asperi-

Hackberry (Celtis occidentalis). Solia).

Sassafras berry (Sassafras sassafras). Sour gum (Nyssa sylvatica).

Blackberry or raspberry (Rubus sp.). Tupelo gum (Nyssa aquatica).

Dwarf sumac (Rhus copallina). Persimmon (Diospyros virginiana).

Poison sumac (Rhus verniz). Fringe tree (Chionanthus virginica).

Poison ivy (Rhus radicans). Elderberry (Sambucus canadensis).

American holly (Ilex opaca). Larger withe-rod (Viburnum nudum).

Dahoon holly (Ilex cassine). Black haw (Viburnum prunifolium).

Summary.—The food of the pileated woodpecker does not interest
the farmer or horticulturist, for it is cbtained entirely from the forest
or the wild copses on its edge. This bird does not visit either the
orchard or the grain field, and all its work in the forest helps to con-
serve the timber. Unfortunately the bird is so scarce in many places
that it is an object of curiosity, and the man or boy with a gun never
lets pass a chance to shoot one, although its flesh is unfit for food.
In fall and winter it may often be seen in the market in Washington,
and probably in cities farther south. Maj. Bendire relates that once
when short of provisions he attempted to eat one, but found it
extremely unpalatable. Its killing should be strictly prohibited at all
times.

RED-HEADED WOODPECKER.

( Melaner pes erythrocephalus.)

The handsome redhead (PI. ITT) inhabits suitable localities through-
out most of southern Canada and the United States east of the
Rocky Mountains, but is rare in New England and northeastward.
It is a familiar bird on telegraph poles and fence posts and feeds
largely on insects found upon these bare surfaces, but the vegetable
matter in its stomach shows that it forages elsewhere also.

Fifty years ago Giraud stated that on Long Island the red-headed
woodpecker arrives early in April, and during the spring ‘subsists
chiefly on insects. In summer it frequents fruit trees, ripe cherries
and pears seeming to be a favorite repast. In the fall it feeds on
berries and acorns, the latter at this season forming a large portion
of its food.” !

In its fondness for mast it resembles its relative, the California
woodpecker. In the northern part of its range, where the oak is
replaced by the beech, the redhead makes the beechnut its principal
food. Dr. C. Hart Merriam has given much testimony under this
head.2 He states that in northern New York, where it is one of the

 

' Giraud, J, P., Birds of Long Island, p. 180, 1844.
2 Birds of Connecticut, p. 66, 1877; Bull. Nuttall Ornith. Club, III, 124, 1878; Mammals of the Adiron-
dacks, p. 226, 1884.
36 FOOD OF WOODPECKERS OF UNITED STATES.

commonest woodpeckers, it subsists almost exclusively on beechnuts
during the fall and winter, even picking the green nuts before they are
ripe and while the trees are still covered with leaves. He has shown
that these woodpeckers invariably remain throughout the winter
after good nut yields and migrate whenever the nut crop fails. He
says: ‘‘Gray squirrels, red-headed woodpeckers, and beechnuts were
numerous during the winters of 1871-72, 1873-74, 1875-76, 1877-78,
1879-80, 1881-82, 1883-84, while during the alternate years the squir-
rels and nuts were scarce and the woodpeckers altogether absent;’’
and adds that in Lewis County, N. Y., ‘‘a good squirrel year is synony-
mous with a good year for Melanerpes, and vice versa.” In early
spring following a nut year, when the melting snow uncovers the
ground, they feed on the beechnuts that were buried during the win-
ter. On April 5, 1878, at Locust Grove, N. Y., he shot 6 whose
gizzards contained beechnuts and nothing else.

In ax interesting article in the Auk,! Mr. O. P. Hay says that in
central Indiana during a good beechnut year, from the time the nuts
began to ripen, the redheads were almost constantly on the wing,
passing from the beeches to some place of deposit. They hid the
nuts in almost every conceivable situation. Many were placed in
cavities in partly decayed trees; and the felling of an old beech was
certain to provide a feast for the children. Large handfuls were
taken from a single knot hole. They were often found under a patch
of raised bark, and single nuts were driven into cracks in the bark.
Others were thrust into cracks in gateposts; and a favorite place of
deposit was behind long slivers on fence posts. In a few cases grains
of corn were mixed with beechnuts. Nuts were often driven into
cracks in the ends of railroad ties, and the birds were often seen on the
roofs of houses pounding nuts into the crevices between the shingles.
In several instances the space formed by a board springing away
from a fence was nearly filled with nuts, and afterwards pieces of
bark and wood were brought and driven over the nuts as if to hide
them from poachers.

In summer Dr. Merriam has seen the redheads ‘‘make frequent
sallies into the air after passing insects, which were almost invariably
secured.’ He has also seen them catch grasshoppers on the ground
in a pasture.

Dr. A. K. Fisher saw several red-headed woodpeckers feeding on
grasshoppers in the streets at Miles City, Mont., in the latter part of
July, 1893. Several of the birds were seen capturing these insects
near the hotel throughout the greater part of the forenoon. From
a regular perch on top of a telegraph pole or cottonwood they
descended on their prey, sometimes eating them on the ground, but
more often returning to their former post to devour them.

 

1 Auk, IV, 194, 195, 1887.
RED-HEADED WOODPECKER. 37

The following interesting observation was made by Dr. G. S. Agers-
borg, of Vermilion, S. Dak. :!

Last spring, in opening a good many birds of this species with the object of ascer-
taining their principal food, I found in their stomachs nothing but young grass-
hoppers. One of them, which had its headquarters near my house, was observed
making frequent visits to an old oak post, and on examining it I found a large crack
where the woodpecker had inserted about 100 grasshoppers of all sizes (for future
use, as later observation proved), which were put in without killing them, but they
were so firmly wedged in the crack that they in vain tried to get free. I told this to
a couple of farmers, and found that they had also seen the same thing, and showed
me posts which were used.for the same purpose. Later in the season the wood-
pecker whose station was near my house commenced to use his stores, and to-day
(February 10) there are only a few shriveled-up grasshoppers left.

The late Mr. Charles Aldrich, of Webster City, Iowa, states that
he saw a red-headed woodpecker catching grasshoppers on the prairie
half a mile from timber. In Nebraska grasshoppers were found in
4 out of 6 stomachs examined by Prof. Samuel Aughey.

Besides taking fruit and grain, this woodpecker has been accused
of destroying the eggs of other birds and even of killing the young;
and from Florida comes a report that it enters poultry houses and
sucks the eggs of domestic fowls. Mr. Charles Aldrich, of Webster
City, Iowa, says that a red-headed woodpecker was seen to kill a
duckling with a single blow on the head, and then to peck out and
eat the brains.? In view of such testimony, remains of eggs and
young birds were carefully looked for in the stomachs examined, but
pieces of eggshell were found in only 4.

A very unusual trait has been recorded by Dr. Howard Jones, of
Circleville, Ohio. He has seen the red-headed woodpecker steal the
eggs of eaves swallows, and in cases where the necks of the nests
were so long that the eggs were out of reach, the woodpecker made
a hole in the walls of the nest and so obtained the contents. In a
colony of swallows containing dozens of nests, not a single brood of
young was raised. One of the woodpeckers also began to prey upon
hens’ eggs, and was finally captured in the act of robbing the nest of a
sitting hen.?

The redhead has been accused of doing considerable damage to
fruit and grain, and both charges are fairly well sustained. In
northern New York Dr. Merriam has seen it peck into apples on the
tree, and has several times seen it feed on chokecherries (Prunus
virginiana).

Mr. August Jahn, of Pope County, Ark., writes that it has damaged
his corn to the amount of $10 or $15, and Dr. J. R. Mathers, of Upshur
County, W. Va., says that the same species feeds on cherries, straw-
berries, raspberries, and blackberries, and that its depredations are

 

1 Bull. Nuttall Ornith. Club, III, 97, 1878.
2 Am. Nat., VI, 308, May, 1877.
3 Ornithologist and Oologist, VIII, 56, 1883.
38 FOOD OF WOODPECKERS OF UNITED STATES.

sometimes serious. According to Mr. Witmer Stone, of Germantown,
Pa., red-headed woodpeckers have been observed to strip a black-
berry patch of all of its fruit. Mr. W.B. McDaniel, of Decatur County,
Ga., also reports that the sapsucker and redhead eat grapes and
cherries, the loss being sometimes considerable. These examples
show the nature of the testimony contributed by eyewitnesses, the
accuracy of whose observations there is no reason to doubt. That
the stomach examinations do not reveal more damaging evidence
against the species is not surprising, for a person seeing a bird eating
his choice fruit, or in some other way inflicting damage, is more
impressed by it than by the sight of a hundred of the same species
quietly pursuing their ordinary vocations. Thus an occasional act
is taken as a characteristic habit.

In the food investigation of the redhead 443 stomachs were exam-
ined. They were collected in 27 States, the District of Columbia,
and Canada, and represent every month, though fewer were taken
in the colder season, as the bird is inclined to migrate, and remains
in the north only when an abundance of food is assured. Of the
stomach’s contents, animal matter amounts to 33.83 per cent and
vegetable to 66.17.

Animal food.—Beetles amount to about 19 per cent of the food.
Of these, 7.34 per cent consist of predaceous ground beetles and
tiger beetles, with a few ladybird beetles, all of which are useful.
This is the highest percentage of useful insects eaten by any of the
woodpeckers. Among the species taken are the fire ground-beetle
(Calosoma calidum) and the searcher (C. scrutator), both predaceous
species of large size and vile odor.

Passalus cornutus, one of the staghorns, a large species, was also
found, as well as a pair of mandibles belonging to Prionus imbri-
cornis, one of the largest species in the United States. The remain-
der of the beetle food is made up of various families, of which the
May beetles (Scarabeide) are the most prominent. They amount
to 6.31 per cent and are mostly flower-beetles (Huphoria) or closely
allied genera. A preference for large beetles is a pronounced char-
acteristic of this woodpecker. Weevils were found in 99 stomachs
and as many as 12 were counted in one. Such harmful species as
Epicerus imbricatus, Phytonomus punctatus, and Sphenophorus zee
were identified in several stomachs. The beetles eaten by the red-
head are mostly adults, and such species as creep over the bark of
trees or on bare fences or telegraph poles, where the bird loves to
forage. Unlike the hairy, downy, and three-toed woodpeckers, the
redhead eats very few beetle larve or other grubs, or ants that live
in wood or other places of concealment. Apparently it is not so
fond of pecking wood as are the other species, but on the other hand
it has been known to peck holes in telegraph and telephone poles
’

RED-HEADED WOODPECKER. 39

until they were so weakened as to break down, thereby -causing
‘considerable damage.” 1

Ants amount to 5.17 per cent of the food of the redhead, which is
the lowest record but one of all the woodpeckers. The greatest
number are eaten in June and July, when they aggregate a little
more than 14 per cent in each month. As they are mostly taken
in the warmer months, it is almost certain that they are captured
in the open, not dug out of decaying trees or logs. Hymenoptera
other than ants amount to 1.63 per cent. These are of course bees
and wasps, and, as this bird is quite skillful in catching insects upon
the wing, probably it takes most of them in the air.2 In one stomach
was found one worker honey bee. Parasitic species were identified
in a few stomachs. Like the ants, most of the wasps were taken
in midsummer.

Hemiptera, or bugs, are a small but rather regular constituent of
the food. They aggregate only 1.89 per cent of the yearly diet,
but include some interesting species. A collection of 6 stomachs
was received from Ames, Iowa, at a time when a-brood of 17-year
locusts (Tibicen septendecim) was out. These insects had been
eaten by every one of the birds, and they averaged 52 per cent of
the stomachs’ contents. Field observation, as well as stomach
examination, shows that cicadas are eaten in their season by all
kinds of insectivorous birds big enough to manage such large insects.
Cicadas were found in 10 stomachs, but not all were identified as
the 17-year species. Scales (Coccide), or bark lice, were found in
17 stomachs, and in 5 they were identified as the plum or cherry
scale (Hulecanwum cerasifex). In 1 stomach this species amounted
to 60 per cent of the contents. This shows that the bird forages to
some extent among the smaller branches and twigs of live trees.
A few individuals of several other families of bugs were found, of
which Pentatomide, or stinkbugs, were the favorites.

Orthoptera, in the shape of grasshoppers, crickets, and cock-
roaches and their eggs, were eaten very sparingly throughout the
year; but in August, the grasshopper month, the redhead takes
to the ground, where it feeds quite freely upon these insects. They
aggregate 21.17 per cent of its diet in August, and in September 9.53
per cent, amounting in the two months to two-thirds of the grass-
hoppers taken in the year. The average for the year is 3.58 per cent.
There is much testimony that many grasshoppers are stored up for
future-use. They do not, however, constitute a very large element
of the food after September. The redhead may share the instinct

 

1 Buchler, M. H., Pennsylvania Telephone Co., in letter to Biological Survey, dated Harrisburg, Pa.,
March 19, 1895.

2 See Merriam, Bull. Nuttall Ornith. Club, III, 126, July, 1878; also Forest and Stream, IX, 451, January
17, 1878.

,
40 FOOD OF WOODPECKERS OF UNITED STATES.

of its California cousin and store up much food that it never eats,
thus contributing to the welfare of pilferers of the food.

Lepidoptera, that is, caterpillars, are apparently not a favorite
food of the redhead. A few were eaten in the months from April to
October, inclusive, but in May only do they reach 10 per cent of the
food. The average for the year is 1.63 per cent. One harmful species,
the wheat-head army worm (Heliophila albilinea), was identified in
one stomach, which contained about a dozen specimens. Dragon-
flies, spiders, and millepeds, bits of a crayfish, eggshells, and a few
bits of bone and hair of some small rodent, altogether make up the
remaining 1 per cent.

The following insects were identified in the stomachs of the red-
head: 7

COLEOPTERA.
Cicindela sp. Aphodius inquinatus.
Carabus sp. Aphodius sp.
Calosoma scrutator. Bolboceras farctus.
Calosoma calidum. Dichelonycha sp.
Pasimachus depressus. Macrodactylus subspinosus.
Scarites subterraneus. Lachnosterna sp.
Pterostichus sayt. Anomala sp.
Pterostichus sp. Allorhina nitida.
Amara fulvipes. Euphoria fulgida.
Galerita janus. Euphoria inda.
Chlenius sp. Euphoria sepulchralis.
Geopinus incrassatus. Prionus imbricornis.
Agonoderus pallipes. Elaphidion sp.

Anisodactylus discoideus.
Anisodactylus nigrita.
Anisodactylus sp.
Tropisternus sp.

Spheridium scarabxoides.

Necrophorus sp.
Creophilus villosus.
Staphylinus vulpinus.
Staphylinus maculosus.
Coccinella 9-notata.
Ips fasciatus.
Melanotus fissilis.
Passalus cornutus,
Phanzus carnifex.
Canthon levis.
Canthon sp.
Onthophagus sp.
Atenius cognatus.
Aphodius fossor.
Aphodius fimetarius.
Aphodius ruricola.

Apis mellifera.
Vespa maculata.

Nodonota tristis.
Gastroidea cyanea.
Melasoma scripta.
Diabrotica 12-punctata.
Eleodes tricostata.
Meracantha contracta.
Corymbites cylindricollis.
Dicerca obscura.
Dicerca sp.
Chrysobothris sp.
Ptinus dubius.
Ceruchus piceus.
Epicauta sp.

Epicxrus imbricatus.
Sitones sp.
Phytonomus punctatus.
Hylobius pales.
Balaninus sp.
Sphenophorus zex.
Sphenophorus sp.

HYMENOPTERA.

Ophion sp.
Camponotus sp.
Bull 37, Biological Survey, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture PLaTe IV

 

CALIFORNIA WOODPECKER.
Bull. 37, Biological Survey, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture PLaTe V

 

Lewis WOODPECKER.
RED-HEADED WOODPECKER. 41

HEMIPTERA.
Nezara hilaris. : Tibicen sp.
Sinea diadema. Eulecanium cerasifex.
Tibicen septendecim.

LEPIDOPTERA.

Wheat-head army worm (Heliophila albilinea).

Vegetable food.Some grain is eaten by the redhead from May to
September. In August and September it amounts to 21.73 and
19.67 per cent, respectively. The average for the year is 4.25 per
cent. Corn was identified in 64 stomachs and oats in 2. The
former was in most cases immature or in the milk, and was more or
less mixed with corn silk. Domestic fruit was found in 175
stomachs—that is, if the seeds of blackberries and raspberries and
the pulp without seeds were all of domesticated varieties. Black-
berries and raspberries were identified in 42 stomachs, domestic
cherries in 15, strawberries in 7, and apples in 9. Cultivated fruit
was all taken in the months from April to September, inclusive, with
the maximum of 16.76 per cent in July. The average for the year
is 3.30 per cent. The above account undoubtedly does the bird
great injustice, as probably most of the Rubus fruit (blackberries
and raspberries) was obtained from wayside thickets, and it is almost
certain that much of the unidentified pulp contained in 102
stomachs was from wild species. The strawberries also were as
likely to be wild as cultivated. Wild fruits were found in 100
stomachs, and 17 species were identified. They were eaten in
every month, the most in the colder ones. February appears to be
the month of maximum consumption with 50 per cent, but the
record is based on only 9 stomachs. The average for the year is
16.90 per cent. Anthers of flowers should perhaps be included in
this item. They were found in 4 stomachs,

Mast is evidently a favorite food of the redhead. It appears in
the stomachs of every month except March, but as only 3 were
taken then the exception is probably accidental. The most was
eaten in the four months from October to January, inclusive, and
the average for those months is 55.22 per cent, and for the year
23.26 per cent. The great bulk of this is acorns, but some other
nuts and large seeds are included. This record for mast eating is,
as far as known, exceeded by only a few birds, notably the Cali-
fornia woodpecker and the jays.

Miscellaneous vegetable matter amounts to 18.30 per cent. This
is made up of cambium, found in 5 stomachs, poison-ivy seeds in 7,
several other Rhus seeds, and a number of weed seeds. The great
bulk of this item, however, is a mass of hard woody granules of
very irregular shape and undetermined origin. They were found
AQ FOOD OF WOODPECKERS OF UNITED STATES.

in 90 stomachs, and one contained nothing else. They have a
resemblance to the woody granules in pear pulp, but are larger and
more irregular. It is possible that they are derived from the pulp
of some wild fruit. If so, their percentage should be added to the
fruit pulp. They have been found in the food of other woodpeckers,
but in comparatively small quantities.

The following fruits and seeds were identified:

Bristly greenbrier (Smilax bona-noz). Frost grape (Vitis cordifolia).
Mulberry (Vorus rubra). Woodbine (Parthenocissus quinguefolia).
Dock (Rumex sp.). Flowering dogwood (Cornus florida).
Lambs quarters (Chenopodium album). Rough-leaved dogwood (Cornus asperi-
Shadbush or service berry (Amelanchier folia).

canadensis). Panicled dogwood (Cornus candidissima).
Bird cherry (Prunus pennsylvanica). Sour gum (Nyssa sylvatica).
Chokecherry (Prunus virginiana). Huckleberry (Gaylussacia sp.).
Black cherry (Prunus serotina). Black nightshads (Solanum nigrum).
Dwarf sumac (Rhus copallina). Black elderberry (Sambucus canadensis).
Smooth sumac (Rhus glabra). Red elderberry (Sambucus pubens).
Poison ivy (Rhus radicans). Ragweed (Ambrosia sp.).

Fox grape ( Vitis vulpina).

Summary.—No species of woodpecker in this country, with the
possible exception of the yellow-bellied sapsucker (Sphyrapicus
varius), has been the subject of so much adverse criticism as the red-
head. It has been accused of eating nearly every variety of culti-
vated fruit from strawberries to oranges, of pecking corn from the
ear, of eating the eggs of poultry and pigeons, of pecking open the
skulls and devouring the brains of young poultry, and of destroying
the eggs or young of eaves swallows and other birds. These accusa-
tions are well grounded, but the habits are probably only local.
These reports have been received from hundreds of localities, but in
thousands of other places where the bird abounds no such acts have
been observed. Stomach examination confirms to some extent the
corn-eating habit, and to a less degree the fruit-eating, but fails
entirely to show that the bird habitually eats young birds or eggs."
Where this bird has done appreciable harm, it has probably been due
to new and unusual conditions likely to be temporary. In its animal
food the redhead does a little harm theoretically by its destruction
of predatory beetles, but the harmful species eaten are enough to
balance this. On the whole, there seems to be no reason to condemn
this woodpecker except under very unusual conditions, and the man
who claims to have killed 527 of them in four years did himself and
neighbors a very doubtful service.

 

1 Eggshells have been found in some stomachs of nearly every species of bird yet examined by the writer,
They are undoubtedly, in most cases, old shells eaten for the lime.
CALIFORNIA WOODPECKER. 43

CALIFORNIA WOODPECKER.
( Melanerpes formicivorus bairdi.)

The California woodpecker (PI. IV) is distributed throughout most
of the oak-covered mountain and foothill region of California, north-
ern Lower California, and southern Oregon. It lives generally wher-
ever large oaks are abundant, and from these it gets much of its living.
Wherever it occurs it is commonly abundant, and its strongly con-
trasted colors and loud cries attract much attention as it flies from
tree to tree. A peculiar habit has drawn much notice from non-
scientific observers—that of drilling holes in tree trunks or large
branches, in each of which it places an acorn. Where this bird is
abundant all dead trunks or branches of any size, and many live ones,
are punctured with these holes, frequently less than an inch apart.
So zealous is the bird in this work that often when trees in the proper
condition for puncturing are not numerous enough, it attacks build-
ings and drills holes in the cornices of houses or in the spires of
churches; also it bores into telephone and telegraph poles and fence
posts, and sometimes uses: natural cavities. But the woodpecker
does not get the benefit of all the acorns it lays up, for the jays have
learned where they can easily obtain food in winter, and are not back-
ward about robbing the woodpecker’s larder, thus causing endless
quarrels. Probably rats, mice, and squirrels also help themselves to
these supplies.

For the laboratory investigation of the food of the California
woodpecker 84 stomachs were available. They were taken in every
month except February, April, and May—the larger numbers in June
and July, when the chances for the bird to do mischief are greatest.
The food was found to consist of 22.59 per cent of animal matter to
77.41 per cent of vegetable. This is the highest percentage of vege-
table matter yet found in the stomach of any woodpecker, though the
red-bellied (Centurws carolinus) comes very close to it. Most other
woodpeckers eat more animal than vegetable food.

Animal food.—Beetles constitute the smallest item in the animal
food. They amount to less than 3 per cent, and are distributed among
several families, with no preference shown for any one. In July,
the only month in which they are at all prominent, they reach 14.76
per cent. No wood-boring larve were found. This seems to indi-
cate that this bird uses its wood-pecking powers, not to find insects,
but only to make places for storing food. Ants amount to 8.09 per
cent of the food. In one stomach taken in March they constitute
50 per cent of the contents, but in no other do they reach 11 per
cent. The specific name of this bird, formicworus, is not well chosen,
for it eats fewer ants than most other species of woodpeckers. Other
Hymenoptera amount to 7.34 per cent. More than half of these
44 FOOD OF WOODPECKERS OF UNITED STATES.

were contained in stomachs taken in August, when they aggregate
37.33 per cent. A few bugs, flies, and grasshoppers, with some
fragments of caterpillars, make up the remainder of the animal
food—4.49 per cent. One stomach contained a few black olive
scales.

Vegetable food.—Grain, fruit, and mast are the three items that form
nearly all the vegetable food. One stomach taken in January con-
tained nothing but corn, and in another collected in December were
a few corn hulls. This is the whole of the grain record, and is of no
economic interest. The average for the year but slightly exceeds 1
per cent. Fruit amounts to a little less than 23 per cent, and was
found in nearly every month in which stomachs were taken. Most
of it was evidently the pulp of the larger cultivated varieties, though
that found in stomachs collected in the winter months could have no
economic value. Seeds of the elderberry (Sambucus) were found in
two stomachs and were the only fruit positively identified. The
largest amounts were eaten in August and September, when they
reached 59.34 and 54 per cent, respectively. While this is rather a
high percentage of fruit eaten, complaints against the bird are not
general, and the damage done to fruit over most of its range is
probably comparatively small.

The principal item of the food of the California woodpecker is
acorns. This amounts to 53.30 per cent of the food of the year,
and was found in 58 stomachs, or 69 per cent of the whole, and 23
contained nothing else. It was eaten in every month when stomachs
were taken except August, but as only 3 were collected in that
month the record is not reliable. In November, when 12 stomachs
were taken, acorns amounted to 93.58 per cent of the average con-
tents. In June, when fruit and insects are abundant, it averaged
in 12 stomachs 79.25 per cent. In July the least was eaten—29.47
per cent. This was made up by the animal food, which attained the
highest percentage in that month. The question has been raised
whether the bird stores the acorn for the sake of its meat or for the
erubs which may frequently develop therein. The examination of
the stomach contents removes all doubt, for while acorns are eaten
freely larvee are almost entirely wanting.

In certain localities where almonds are largely cultivated and this
bird is abundant it exhibits a strong liking for thesenuts. Under these
conditions it is sometimes necessary to shoot every woodpecker that
appears in the orchard in order to save even a reasonable part of
the crop. Such conditions are likely to occur wherever large groves
of oaks occur in close proximity to the orchards and this bird is
correspondingly numerous. While the necessity for applying so
drastic a remedy is unfortunate, it can be said that it is not so deplor-
able as it would be in the case of some other more conspicuously
useful species.
LEWIS WOODPECKER. 45

Summary.—The foregoing discussion shows that the food of the
California woodpecker is not of much economic importance. On the
other hand, the bird can not be charged with destroying useful insects
or many products of husbandry. While it eats considerable fruit,
especially almonds, in fact twice as much as the linnet, it does not
habitually infest orchards, and in most localities is not numerous
enough to be a serious nuisance. The few insects which it takes
are nearly all of harmful species, while the acorns which make up
the bulk of its diet may be considered of little value. The trees
used for storehouses are usually either dead or partly so, and when
alive are little harmed by the punctures, which do not usually go
through the bark. When, however, holes are made in buildings,
telegraph or telephone poles, or fences, they are a real injury, and it is
fortunate that such cases are local and exceptional. From the
esthetic point of view, however, a strong plea for the bird’s protec-
tion may be made. It is an interesting and picturesque species,
and where it does not make itself conspicuous by reason of the
damage it does it may well be allowed to live.!

LEWIS WOODPECKER.
(Asyndesmus lewisi.)

The Lewis woodpecker (Pl. V) is irregularly distributed over that
part of the United States west of the eastern slope of the Rocky
Mountains, north to southwestern Canada, and south to northern
Mexico. In many localities within its range it is rare or absent, while
very abundant in others. It is by nature somewhat shy, not greatly
addicted to visiting orchards and cultivated areas.

In Oregon and Washington complaint has been made that the bird
does some damage to apples. Only twice was the writer able to find
cases of serious damage. An orchard situated close to a river, on the
far side of which was a large area of wild land, was so persistently
visited by Lewis woodpeckers, when the early apples were ripening,
that the pickers were obliged to shoot the birds. One evening a num-
ber of boxes filled ready for market were left in the orchard. In the
morning it was found that the woodpeckers had pulled out the papers
and pecked the fruit so that it was necessary to open and repack
several boxes. In the other case the orchard was in the foothills and
almost completely surrounded by evergreen forests, from which the
birds came and to which they retreated when alarmed.

Dr. Merriam, speaking of Fall River Valley, California, says of
this bird: ‘‘Common everywherve and eating apples in several of the
orchards.’”’ Also at Fort Jones: ‘‘Evidently eating apples.”

 

1 Besides the California form, bairdi, treated of in these pages, there is at least one other, aculeata, within
the limits of the United States. Its range is in the southern Rocky Mountains from central western Texas
to northern Arizona. No stomachs of this subspecies have been received, but probably its food habits
do not differ from those of the other form.
46 FOOD OF WOODPECKERS OF UNITED STATES.

Messrs. Grant and Ferry, writing from Klamath Hot Springs,
Oregon, say: ‘‘Abundant in flocks first part of September. Per-
sons with guns stationed in orchards * * * to destroy these
birds, kill 25 to 50 of them per day for from one to two weeks.”

Mr. J. E. McLellam says they ‘‘never come in great numbers unless
there is a good crop of mast, when they come inswarms. They hoard
sunilar to the California woodpecker.” Quite a number of apple
growers interviewed by the writer testified that the bird destroyed
some apples, but none of them considered the loss of any importance.
As the orchards increase in area, the damage will probably become
less.

Mr. W. Otto Emerson, of Haywards, Cal.,in a letter to the Biological
Survey, dated March 14, 1909, says of this bird:

Several cases have come under my observation when in the fall months of Septem-
ber and October the California and Lewis woodpeckers have made their appearance in
canyon apple orchards and went into them picking open the apples for the codling
moth worms they contained, going all over the trees and taking such fruit as had a
wormhole in it. Inone orchard of about 2 acres in extent at Sunol, this county
(Alameda), near the Niles Canyon, I counted 23 bodies of the Lewis woodpeckers and
9 of the California tied up to the limbs by the legs to frighten off the birds. The owner

did not seem to know what the woodpeckers were after * * * till I called his
attention to the condition of his wormy fruit. °

For investigation of this bird’s food only 59 stomachs were availa-
ble. They were collected in five States from Montana and Wyoming
westward to the Pacific coast. They are so irregularly distributed
over the year as to make systematic study of the food impossible,
but we may learn some of the elements which compose it. Animal
matter amounts to 37.48 per cent and vegetable to 62.50 per cent.

Animal food.—Predaceous beetles were eaten to the extent of 6.72
per cent, and, as is usually the case, the most appear to have been
taken in spring and early summer. They were made up of Carabide
and Coccinellide (ladybird beetles). Of the former, the genus
Pasimachus was recognized, and of the latter, two species, Hippo-
damia convergens and H. 15-maculata, were identified. Other beetles
amount to 2.40 per cent and were all eaten in the five months from
June to October. Among them were several Meloide, or blister
beetles, not usually supposed to be very palatable. One specimen
of a water beetle (Philhydrus diffusus) was also identified.

There is nothing in the stomachs to indicate that this bird ever
digs into wood, decayed or otherwise, in search of beetle larve. Ants
were eaten most in summer and in April, and June appears to be the
month of maximum consumption, while May shows none. The
average for the year is 11.87 per cent, but this can not be considered
final. Other Hymenoptera reach 11.57 per cent. Hemiptera, or
bugs, seem to be taken very sparingly, and those chosen were of the
larger species. They amount to 1.36 per cent. Grasshoppers are
RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER. AT

eaten—not many in August, more in July, and most in September,
with a trace in October, while the eastern birds eat the most of these
insects in August. The average for the year is 3.20 per cent. No
caterpillars or Lepidoptera in any form were found in this bird’s
stomach. A few spiders amount to less than half of 1 per cent.

Vegetable food—Corn was found in one stomach taken in August,
and constituted 62 per cent of its contents, but amounted to only 0.46
per cent of the food of the year. No other grain was found. Pulp
and skins of fruit supposed to be of cultivated varieties were noted in
March, the three summer months, and October. There is no cer-
tainty that all this was cultivated fruit, and in any eveat that taken
in March could hardly have had any economic value. The aggregate
for the year is 10.90 percent. Wild fruit was identified in 26 stomachs,
all of them taken in July, August, and September. In the former it
amounted to over 63 per cent of the food, and the average for the year
is 14.65 per cent. Six genera—Amelanchier, Ilex, Crataegus, Cornus,
Prunus, and Sambucus—were identified. Mast, or acorns, is the
largest item of food. It was found in 20 stomachs and constitutes
34.46 per cent of the diet. None was found in July, but in all the
other months in which stomachs were taken it amounted to a good
percentage. The one stomach taken in December contained 75 per
cent of this food. Seeds of poison oak (Rhus diversiloba) and a weed
(Amaranthus) make up 2.05 per cent, the remainder of the vegetable
food.

Summary.—lt is hardly possible to draw definite conclusions from
so little material, especially when distributed over so large a territory.
While the bird eats some useful beetles, probably it does no serious:
harm in this way. It is not likely to damage grain. Evidently,
however, it has a pronounced taste for fruit, which at present is grati-
fied mostly by wild species; but if the wild fruit-bearing shrubs and
trees in its range should ever be replaced by cultivated varieties, it
would doubtless turn to cultivated fruits. Further investigation in
both field and laboratory are necessary in order to fix definitely the
economic status of the Lewis woodpecker.

RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER.
(Centurus carolinus.)

The red-bellied woodpecker ranges over the eastern United States
as far west as central Texas and eastern Colorado, and as far north
as New York, southern Ontario, southern Michigan, and southern
Minnesota. It breeds throughout this range and appears to be
irregularly migratory. Very strangely, it often goes north of its
breeding range to spend the winter. Four stomachs, collected in
November and December, have been received from Canada, and in
eight years of residence in central Iowa the writer found the species
A8 FOOD OF WOODPECKERS OF UNITED STATES.

abundant every year during the winter, but never saw one in the
breeding season. It is rather more of a forest bird than some of the
other woodpeckers, but is seen frequently in open or thinly timbered
country. In the northern part of its range it appears to prefer
deciduous growth, but in the south is quite common in pine forests.

There is some evidence that this bird is occasionally injurious to
the horticulturist. Dr. B. H. Warren says:

In various sections of Florida, where the red-bellied woodpeckers are exceedingly
numerous, in fact by odds the most abundant of all the woodpeckers, the common
names of “orange sapsucker’’ and ‘orange borer’’ are universally applied to them.
On making inquiry of farmers and others, I learned that the names were given because
these woodpeckers ‘“‘sucked the sap’’ of orange trees and fed on oranges. Supposing
these statements were wrongfully made, I at first gave but little attention to them.
When, however, I visited Welaka, Palatka, Volusia, Deland, and other places where
numerous orange trees were thriving, I was informed by the orange growers that the
red-bellied woodpeckers oftentimes destroyed large numbers of oranges when they
had matured and were ready for picking; also, that ‘‘they damaged the orange trees
by boring holes in them and sucking thesap.’’ I had but little opportunity of making
a careful study of this orange-eating habit, so greatly talked about, owing to the fact
that when I first visited these localities it was late in February, or after the oranges
had been picked and shipped north. In the month of March, 1885, I camped a few
days at Bluffton, near Volusia, in an orange grove owned by Mr. Bird, of New York
City. This grove contained about 30 acres of trees, which were loaded with fruit,
then being picked for market. Through the kindness of Mr. Bird and his overseer,
Mr. Curtis, I collected 26 red-bellied woodpeckers in this orange grove. Eleven of
these birds had fed to a more or less extent on oranges.

Three of the 11 stomachs taken from specimens killed in the forenoon, soon after
daylight, contained only orange pulp. Eight stomachs showed, in addition to orange
pulp, insects and berries. The stomachs of the remaining 15 birds contained no
traces of oranges, but revealed chiefly insects, a few berries, and seeds. I examined
two dozen or more oranges which had been attacked by the woodpeckers, and found
that all had been bored about midway between the stem and blossom end. ‘These
holes, always round, varied greatly in size. The birds usually, I think, pick off the
skin from a space about the size of an ordinary 5-cent piece, and then eat out the pulp.
In an orchard at Hawkinsville, near Deland Landing, on the St. Johns River, I often-
times, in the month of April, 1885, found oranges which had been evidently overlooked
when the crop was gathered, and in most instances observed that they were bored.
In this orchard on one occasion I saw a red-bellied woodpecker eating an orange. He
evidently recognized the fact that it was about the last of the season, as he had enlarged
the opening sufficiently so that his head was almost entirely hidden in the yellow
skin, from the sides of which he picked the few remaining particles of pulp. I was
shown orange trees that these ‘‘sapsuckers’’ were said to have bored. These borings,
however, did not appear to injure the trees, as they seemed to me to be equally as
flourishing as other trees whose trunks showed no marks of 2 woodpecker’s bill.

Mr. William Brewster has made some observations on this point.
He says:

As corroborating Dr. Warren’s account ‘ in his late report on the birds of Pennsyl-
vania, it may be worth while to state that when at Enterprise, Fla., in February,
1889, I observed a red-bellied woodpecker eating the pulp of asweet orange. He flew
down to the ground and, hopping along rather clumsily, approached an orange, and

 

1 Warren, B H., Birds of Pennsylvania, ed. 2, pp. 174-175, 1890.
Bull 37, Biological Survey. U. S. Dept. of Agriculture PLATE VI,

+

inva jae Bin: ais ih gue grr RR A FTA

      

 

FLuicKER (ADULT MALE ).
RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER. 49

for several minutes pecked at it in a slow deliberate way. When I showed myseli
he at once took flight and sought shelter in the dense foliage of the trees above. Upon
examining the orange I found that it was decayed through the whole of one side. In
the sound portion were three holes, each nearly as large as a silver dollar, with narrow
strips of peel between them. The pulp had been eaten out quite to the middle of the
fruit. Small pieces of the rind were thickly strewn about the spot. Upon searching
closely I discovered several other oranges that had been attacked in a similar manner.
All were partially decayed and were lying on the ground. JI was unable to find any
on the trees which showed any marks of the woodpecker’s bill. The owner of this
grove was surprised when I called his attention to the above facts, which were quite
new tohim. Nor had any of the other orange growers in the neighborhood any knowl-
edge of this orange-eating habit of the red-bellied woodpecker.!

Mr. Mortimer also gives testimony upon this habit of the bird:

During February and March, 1889, 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 10 or 12 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 ap-
peared that having once commenced on an orange the woodpecker returned to the
same one repeatedly, until he had completely consumed 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 ‘tsapsuckers,”’ as he called them, never touch any
but very ripe oranges and are troublesome only to such growers as reserve 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 easily located by the noise
they kept up.”

Dr. B. H. Warren states that the stomachs of three red-bellied wood-
peckers captured in winter in Chester and Delaware Counties, Pa.,
contained black beetles, larve, fragments of acorns, and a few seeds
of wildgrapes. Thestomachs of eight adults from the St. Johns River,
Florida, contained red seeds of two species of palmetto, but no insects.
Two additional stomachs from the same locality contained palmetto
berries, fragments of crickets (Nemobius and Orocharis saltator), a
palmetto ant (Camponotus escuriens), and numerous joints of a
myriapod, probably Julus.*

Dr. Townend Glover found in the stomach of a red-bellied wood-
pecker killed in December “‘ pieces of acorns, seeds, and gravel, but no
insects. Another,shot in December, contained wing cases of Buprestis,

 

t Brewster, William, Auk, VI, 337-338, 1889.
2 Mortimer, D. Auk, VII, 339-340, 1890.
3 Birds of Pennsylvania, ed. 2, pp. 174, 178, 1890.

75713°--Bull. 37—11——4
50 FOOD OF WOODPECKERS OF UNITED STATES.

and a species of wasp, or Polistes, acorns, seeds, and no bark. A
third, shot in May, was filled with seeds, pieces of bark, and insects,
among which was an entire Lachnosterna, or Maybug.’”!

For the investigation of the food of the red-bellied woodpecker 271
stomachs were available. They were collected in 17 States and
Ontario, and represent every month in the vear, though but few were
taken in June and July. In the first analysis the food was found to
consist of 30.94 per cent animal matter to 69.06 of vegetable. The
former consists of insects and spiders, with a few tree frogs and lizards,
while the latter may be considered as made up of grain, fruit, and
mast.

Animal food.—Predatory beetles (Carabide) amount to 0.86 per
cent, and consist of some of the larger genera like Pasimachus and
Calosoma. They were probably found on the bark of trees. Other
beetles, all more or less harmful, aggregate-9.32 per cent of the food.
Six species of weevils or snout-beetles were identified, and 14 indi-
viduals were taken from one stomach. There were also quite a
number of wood-boring larve, which the birds must have dug out
from the wood, thus benefiting the forest. Beetles form a pretty
steady article of diet, and starting with 3.62 per cent in January they
increase with fair regularity to May, when they attain the maximum
of 27.57 per cent, from which they slowly decrease to 1 per cent in
December.

Ants are eaten to the extent of 6.45 per cent of the food and are
a fairly constant article of diet. The most are eaten during the
warmer months, though none were found in the two stomachs taken
in June, which is probably accidental. Evidently this bird does not
dig all of the ants it eats from decaying wood, like the downy wood-
pecker, but, like the flickers, collects them from the ground and the
bark of trees. Other Hymenoptera amount to 1.45 per cent, and
while these insects are known to be great lovers of warmth and sun-
shine, most of them are eaten in fall and spring, and many even in
winter, when they are usually less numerous. Orthoptera (grass-
hoppers, crickets, etc.) constitute 5.83 per cent of the food. They
were found in 51 stomachs—grasshoppers in 27, eggs of cockroaches
in 15, crickets in 8, and a mantis (devil’s rear-horse) in 1. Two
stomachs contained the eggs of grasshoppers, which indicates that
this bird occasionally forages on the ground. Cockroaches were
represented entirely by their egg cases (odtheca). These insects
extrude their eggs, not singly like most other creatures, but packed
together in a case somewhat like the clip of cartridges used for some
modern breech-loading rifles. These cases are probably found by birds
in crevices of the bark of trees. Orthoptera are eaten throughout the

 

1 United States Agric. Rept. for 1865, p. 38, 1866.
RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER. 51

'

year, but in quantities varying greatly from month to month. Ina
general way, however, more were eaten in the summer season.

Hemiptera, or bugs, amount to 1.86 per cent of the food, and form
a small but fairly regular constituent of the monthly diet. Scales
were found in one stomach, but most of the bugs eaten were of larger
species, and the majority were Pentatomide or stink-bugs. Cater-
pillars were taken quite regularly, and average 2.88 per cent of the
diet. A few of them were identified as wood-borers. Spiders and
millepeds, with. a few doubtful insects and small vertebrates, make
up 2.29 per cent, the remainder of the animal food. Spiders were
eaten at all times, but in trifling quantities. Small tree frogs were
found in 9 stomachs and remains of a lizard (Anolis carolinensis) in 2.
One stomach contained the lingual ribbon of a snail.

The following is a list of the insects identified:

COLEOPTERA.
Calosoma wilcoxi. Lachnosterna sp.
-Pasimachus depressus. Nodonota puncticollis.
Pasimachus sp. Hylobius pales.
Catogenus rufus. Livus sp.
Ips fasciatus. Dorytomus mucidus.
Trogosita virescens. Pseudomus truncatus.
Melanotus sp. Cryptorhynchus obliquus.
Passalus cornutus. * Balaninus sp.
Dichelonycha sp. Cratoparis lunatus.
HEMIPTERA.

Nezara hilaris.

Vegetable food.—Corn was the only grain found in the food of the
red-bellied woodpecker. It was contained in 39 stomachs, rather
irregularly distributed through the year, but none in the three sum-
mer months, April, or November. The great bulk was eaten in the
three winter months and ih March and September. In September it
was undoubtedly from the green ear in the field, but the rest must
have been waste. The total for the year is 3.99 per cent. Fruit
amounts to 27.28 per cent and forms a notable percentage of the
food in every month. The month of greatest consumption is August,
with 64.10 per cent, while April shows the least, 7.50 per cent. The
larger part of this consists of wild fruit, of which 23 species were
identified. What was thought to be apple pulp was found in one
stomach, cultivated grape in one, and blackberry or raspberry in one.
Fruit pulp not further identified occurred in 15 stomachs and may
have been of cultivated varieties. No great preference is shown for
any one species of wild berry, but mulberries, woodbine, fox grapes,
and sour gum were found in the most stomachs.

Mast amounts to 30.70 per cent and is the largest item of food.
Acorns, beechnuts, hazelnuts, and pecans make up most of this
52 FOOD OF WOODPECKERS OF UNITED STATES.

item. It is eaten throughout the year except during the three sum-
mer months. It was found in 178 stomachs, and the greatest con-
sumption appears to be in November, when it reached 67.05 per cent
of the month’s food, and it does not fall much below this figure until
spring. This record for mast eating is the largest of that of any bird
of this family except the California woodpecker. In most cases where
birds eat much mast they habitually store up nuts and seeds for
future use. The writer has been abie to find but one reference to such
a habit in this bird. W. L. Dawson, in Birds of Ohio, page 357, 1903,
says it “lays up frugal stores of mast and corn.” This seems quite
probable, in view of what is found in the stomachs. Poison ivy
seeds amount to 2.15 per cent and are eaten in every month from
August to February, inclusive.
The following fruits and seeds were found in the stomachs:

Short-leaved pine (Pinus mitis). Poison ivy (Rhus radicans),

Other pine seeds (Pinus sp.). American holly (Ilex opaca).

Saw palmetto (Serenoa serrulata). Swamp holly (Ilex decidua).

Date palm (Serenoa sp.). Frost grape (Vitis cordifolia).

Greenbrier (Smilax glauca). Fox grape ( Vitis vulpina).

Bristly greenbrier (Smilax bona-noz). Woodbine (Parthenocissus quinquefolia).
Other greenbrier (Smilax sp.). Prickly pear (Opuntia sp.).

Bayberry (Myrica carolinensis). Wild sarsaparilla (tralia nudicaulis).
Hackberry (Celtis occidentalis). Flowering dogwood (Cornus florida).

Red mulberry (Morus rubra). Rough-leaved dogwood (Cornus asperi-
Smartweed (Polygonum sp.). folia).

Pokeberry (Phytolacca decandra). Panicled dogwood (Cornus candidissima).
Sassafras (Sassafras sassafras). Sour gum (.Vyssa sylvatica).

Blackberry or raspberry (Rubus sp.). Huckleberry ( Vaccinium sp.).

Wild black cherry (Prunus serotina). Elderberry (Sambucus canadensis).
Sumac (Rhus glabra). Ragweed (Ambrosia sp.).

Summary.—Ouly one element in the food of the red-bellied wood-
pecker has much economic significance. The bird evinces a decided
taste for fruit, and sometimes injures orchards, as in Florida orange
groves. The contents of the stomachs, however, show that wild
fruits are the favorites, and probably only when these have been
replaced by cultivated ones is any mischief done. Orange pulp was
not positively identified in any stomach, though quite a number were
collected in Florida during the orange season. Only a little of the
grain eaten is taken when it is a loss to the farmer. In its animal
food the bird is almost entirely beneficial, as the insects eaten are
largely noxious.

FLICKER.
(Colaptes auratus subspp.)

The flicker (Pl. VI), known also as the golden-winged woodpecker,
yellow-shafted woodpecker, high-holder, yellow-hammer, pigeon
woodpecker, and hairy-wicket, is one of the most widely distributed
and best known species in the United States. This is one of the few
FLICKER. 53

woodpeckers whose flesh is considered palatable, and a few years ago
large numbers were shot for market every fall when wild black
cherries were ripe. The bird is so fond of this fruit that when feeding
in the trees it loses its natural shyness and is easily approached and
killed. Fortunately it is now protected by law in most of the States,
and it should be in all. It is a bird of the open country rather than
of the forest. It is much more wary than the hairy or downy. It
visits the orchard regularly, but does not make serious inroads on
the fruit, and it forages much upon the ground—in fact, in spite of
its liking for tall trees, the flicker is the most terrestrial of American
woodpeckers.

This species is distributed over the whole of the eastern United
States and north to Canada and Alaska, and is replaced in the West
by the red-shafted flicker. The two forms meet on the Great Plains
and along the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountain region and
intermingle in all degrees of hybridism. Typical specimens of either
species are frequently taken far within the range of the other, as, for
instance, a perfect Colaptes auratus was collected by the writer a few
miles east of Haywards, Cal., while typical C. cafer collaris can be
taken every winter at Ames, Iowa. With the possible exception of
the yellow-bellied woodpecker, the eastern flicker is the most migra-
tory American species. In winter it is rarely seen in New England
and only in small numbers in the other northern States. As it
breeds abundantly in Canada, it becomes very numerous in the
northern tier of States in fall when migrating. At this time it sub-
sists largely upon wild cherries and other wild fruits.

The flicker rears from 6 to 10 young in each brood. The nest is
built in a cavity excavated in a partially decayed tree, and is often
quite elaborate, but in some cases it is in a hole caused by natural
decay, where little or no preparatory work is required. The young
find their voices very early in life, and by the time they are a week old
make a great outcry every time they receive a visit from their parents
or even hear approaching footsteps.

Complaints have been made that the flicker eats corn and culti-
vated fruit to an injurious extent, but the charges are not very
specific, and the stomach contents do not indicate extensive depre-
dations of this kind.

For the investigation of the food of the eastern flicker, 684 stomachs
were available. They were collected in 35 States, the District of
Columbia, and Canada, and are very evenly distributed through the
year. The food consists of 60.92 per cent of animal matter to 39.08
of vegetable. In addition the stomachs contain considerable fine
sand, which is probably not taken to aid digestion, but is swallowed
accidentally with some kinds of food, notably ants. Quite a quantity
of vegetable rubbish is taken in the same way.
54 FOOD OF WOODPECKERS OF UNITED STATES.

Animal food.—Predaceous ground beetles (Carabidee) form a small
but very constant element of the flicker’s food. Among those eaten
are some of the larger and more predatory genera, such as Calosoma,
Scarites, and Pterostichus. The total amount eaten in the year is
only 1.62 per cent of the food, and in August, the month of greatest
consumption, it rises to only 3.79 per cent. Other beetles are found
in the food of every month, but in rather irregular amounts. The
ageregate for the year is 3.52 per cent. The favorite food of the
flicker, however, is ants. They form the largest item of animal food,
not only in the aggregate but in every month. The total for the
year is 49.75 per cent of the food. They were found in 524 of the 684
stomachs, i. e., in 76 per cent of the whole, and there were 98 stomachs
that contained no other food. The following table shows the im-
portance of ants in the diet of the flicker:

 

 

   
   
 

 

Number | Per cent | Number
Months need Fercen ofstom- | of stom- | with no

: hs ia tood achs with) achs with) other

Bens. _ ants. ants. food.
PATNI AN Yr xe 5b Segoe ade eben Rad Beas aemoe penis 34 24.09 20 58.8: | osseerssss
MOD UAL Vases achueesrabien ed 28 than eabionceniouareiases 55 29. 73 31 56.3 4
MATCH ce can atte cys yeeNemediaes os 37 79.14 32 86.5 14
APM sasatetacateesienes vee sy 75 80.17 70 93.3 21
siaeweaaieate ee ae 33 79. 24 32 96.9 9
31 79.19 30 96. 8 9
Acinetainiaenbinees Fe ain Seen eae NS 51 70. 74 47 92.1 13
Daciadilinmasias sas RRR RaReTsimeisam aie 92 61. 47 84 91.3 12
138 42. 61 108 76.1 12
rarasetdssiaysisiaies ain Bisvsisi sien acaresSrainieiatsianatane 54 21.79 31 57.4 2
INOVEMUIDER a rcreccxtcaidisiseetis siz pislst sie emmiemeaiomien memos 41 17. 37 22 53. 6 ih
Deceiibers: sceccsccwssmmneccisad isles 3 emma esstactess 43 11. 46 17 39.5 1
PO tall ck rcecietore echistewteite = St arate aclanahersherr trerate ater tans G84 sete eecteran BOA | orwialariaicigs 98
AVerage per ONth. . 2. cere osavmewsn sense |asceecucms AQ STS |ais creer T4eD | scexinrccteseis

 

 

 

 

 

 

In one case a stomach and crop were both filled with very small
ants (Cremastogaster sp.). The whole mass was divided with care
into 16 parts as nearly equal as possible, and in one part 315 ants
were counted, giving 5,040 in one meal of one flicker. In addition
there were at least 100 pupz. Two other stomachs and crops ex-
amined in the same way each gave a little over 3,000 ants. Probably
each of 100 stomachs in the collection contained nearly as much
ant food as these, but the number of ants was less because they were
of larger species. A large proportion of the ants eaten are of species
that live in the earth, and these appear to be the principal food the
flicker obtains on the ground. In every case where the stomach held
a quantity of these small ants, a lot of fine sand revealed their source.

Since the flicker destroys so many ants, it may be well to inquire
as to the economic bearing of this work. As a rule we do not hear
whany serious complaints against ants. They do not attack crops or
manufactured products. Probably they do some good by devouring
dead matter, both animal and vegetable, and in this way hasten
the decay of dead trees. On the other hand, some species enter
FLICKER. 55

houses and become a positive nuisance, as, having their nest in an
inaccessible place, it is almost impossible to destroy them. Other
species establish colonies in lawns or gardens and are so persistent
that nothing short of digging out and carrying off the whole area of
earth which they have preempted will rout them from their chosen
home. When timber has been injured by wood-boring beetle larve,
ants enlarge the burrows and in a few years riddle and spoil the whole
trunk. The worst sin of the ants, however, is that they protect and
foster plant lice in every possible way. They defend them from their
enemies, cover them with sheds to shield them from inclement
weather, and upon the approach of winter they carry some species
into the ground and place them on the roots of plants for the winter
and at the return of warm weather bring them to the upper air and
place them in a position suitable to their needs. As plant lice con-
stitute one of the worst pests to horticulture, their protectors are a
nuisance and should be destroyed. As we have seen, flickers devour
enormous numbers of them and aid essentially in holding them in
check. Hymenoptera other than ants amount to only four one-
hundredths of 1 per cent of the yearly food.

Bugs (Hemiptera) are eaten in nearly every month, but only in
small quantities. In January, February, and May they reach an
average of about 3 per cent, but in no other month do they amount
to even 1 percent. One stomach contained scales not further identi-
fied, another held 17 chinch bugs (Blissus leucopterus), and in another
were what were probably the same in an early stage of growth. Two
stomachs contained each a single bedbug (Cimex lectularius), prob-
ably taken on trial and not relished. Cicadas, or harvest flies
(Tibicen rimcsa), were found in several stomachs. The aggregate of
Hemiptera for the year is only 0.85 per cent.

Orthoptera, in the shape of grasshoppers, crickets, and cockroaches,
amount to 2.39 per cent. They are eaten in every month, but not
very regularly. Singularly, the maximum quantity was taken in
January, 9.77 per cent, which is more than twice the amount in any
other month. This record, however, was made by birds taken in
Texas, which had partaken freely of crickets. The least consump-
tion occurs in August, the grasshopper month, which shows that the
flicker is not a lover of grasshoppers.

Lepidoptera, in the form of caterpillars, are eaten very sparingly—
in fact in only three months do they amount to as much as 1 per cent.
In August they reach 4.91 per cent, 3.13 in June, and 3.29 in No-
vember. The only one identified was the common zebra caterpillar
of the gardens (Mamestra picta). The total for the year is 1.28 \per
cent. A few fly larve, spiders, myriapods, crustaceans, and snails
make up the rest of the animal food. Larve of Tipulidae (crane flies)
were found in 3 stomachs and Bibio larvee (March flies) in 2. As
56 FOOD OF WOODPECKERS OF UNITED STATES,

these creatures breed in the earth, this again shows the terrestrial
habits of the flicker. Spiders and myriapods were found in a gcod
many stomachs, but few were taken at one time, so the aggregate is
not large. Crustaceans, in the form of Oniscus (sowbugs), were
found in 5 stomachs. Snail shells, mostly fragments, were of fre-
quent occurrence, and one was identified as Zonttoides minusculus.
The total of these miscellaneous creatures is 1.49 per cent, which
completes the record of animal food.

The following is a list of the insects identified in the stomachs:

COLEOPTERA.

Cicindela vulgaris.
Calosoma calidum.
Elaphrus obliteratus.
Scarites subterraneus.
Pterostichus sayt.
Amara exarata.

Amara impuncticollis.
-Lmara angulata.
Calathus ingratus.
Platynus placidus.
Platynus punctiformis.
Brachynus puberulus.
Chlenius sp.
Agonoderus pallipes.
Harpalus faunus.
Harpalus pennsylvanicus.
Harpalus pleuriticus.
Har palus ellipsis.
Anisodactylus rusticus.
Anisodactylus sp.
Stenus shoshonis.

Formica obscuripes.
Formica nilidiventris.
Formica subsericea.
Formica subpolita.
Formica gagates.
Formica subenescens.
Formica sp.

Lesius claviger.
Lasius aphidicola.
Lasius brevicornis.
Lasius americanus.
Lasius alienus.
Lasius miniatus.
Lasius subniger.
Lasius sp’.
Camponotus marginatus.
Camponotus melleus.

Camponotus pennsylvanicus.

Quedius prostrans.
Stelidota 8-maculata.
Melanotus communis.
Copris minutus.
Onthophagus hecate.
Onthophagus sp.
Aphodius fimetarius.
Aphodius inquinatus.
Aphodius bicolor.
Aphodius sp.
Lachnosterna sp.
Ligyrus sp.
Caryoborus arthriticus.
Opatrinus aciculatus.
Blapstinus pruinosus.
Blapstinus pulverulentus.
Blapstinus sp.
Tanymecus confertus.
Sitones hispidulus.
Phytonomus punctatus.
Sphenophorus sp.

HYMENOPTERA (ANTS).

Camponotus minutus.
Camponotus pictus.
Camponotus sp.

Myrmica scabrinodis.
Myrmica sabuleti.
Myrmica sp.
Cremastogaster leviuscula.
Cremastogaster minutissim2.
Cremastogaster sp.
Aphenogaster picea.
Aphenogaster fulvum.
Aphenogaster treatz.
Aphenogaster sp.
Prenolepis imparis.
Pheidole sp.

Solenopsis geminata.
Solenopsis debilis.
Tetramorium sp.
bat

FLICKER. 5

HEMIPTERA,

Zelus renardi. Tibicen rimosa,.
Blissus leucopterus. Cimex lectularius.
Metapodius sp.

DIPTERA.

Bibio sp. Tipula sp.
LEPIDOPTERA.
Mamestra picta.
ORTHOPTERA.
Gryllus sp. Ischnoptera sp.
ISOPTERA.
Termes flavipes.
CRUSTACEA.
Oniscus sp.
MOLLUSCA.

Parastarte triquetra. Zonitoides minusculus.

Vegetable food.—Corn was found in 17 stomachs of the flicker, wheat
in one, and buckwheat in two. One stomach taken in March was
entirely filled with corn, evidently waste grain. Most of the remain-
der was taken in fall and early winter. The total for the vear is 1.12
percent. Small fruits are the favorite vegetable food with this bird.
They are eaten in every month and constitute a good percentage in
all but two. In April and May fruit amounts to less than 1 per cent,
but increases through the summer to October, when it is about 42
per cent of the food, and then decreases gradually to the minimum in
April. Possibly some of the Rubus fruits were cultivated, and the
cherries in one stomach certainly were, while the fruit pulp in 21
stomachs may have been, but in any case the amount is insignificant
and shows that the flicker eats but little domestic fruit. On the other
hand, 31 species of wild fruits were identified. They were contained
in 265 stomachs, and 40 contained no other food. They are not only
the favorite vegetable food, but, next to ants, are the favorite food
of the year. There is also shown a fondness for the seeds of various
species of poisonous Rhus (poison ivy, poison oak, and poison sumac).
These seeds are eaten mostly in the fall and winter months, when small
fruits are less abundant. May, June, and July are the only months
when none were eaten. November appears to be the month of
greatest consumption, when they reach nearly 38 per cent. The
ageregate for the year is 9.25 per cent.

_Mast, if the term be limited to acorns and other nuts, is not a
favorite food of the flicker. It is eaten to some extent in the three
58 FOOD OF WOODPECKERS OF UNITED STATES.

winter months and occasionally tasted at other times. It amounts
to 1.79 per cent of the food. Cambium, weed seed, nonpoisonous
Rhus seeds, and rubbish are found in some stomachs pretty regularly
through the year, though the quantity is very irregular. It would
appear that the three former are eaten only in default of anything
better, and the last is probably taken accidentally when seeking ants
in rotten wood or underrubbish. The total amount is 6.64 per cent

and completes the quota of vegetable food.
The following fruits and seeds were identified:

 

Number of Number of
stomachs stomachs
containing containing
Hemlock (foliage) (Tsuga canadensis). 1 | White clover (Trifolium repens)... .. 6
Red cedar (Juniperus virginiana).... 5 | Crane’s-bill (Geranium sp.)..-.----- 1
Barnyard grass (Panicum sp.).------ 1 | Croton (Croton sp.).....-.....22.---- 1
Foxtail grass (Izophorus sp.).....---- 2 | Dwarf sumac (Rhus copallina)...... 3
Glaucous-leaved greenbrier (Smilar Smooth sumac (hus glabra)......... ll
GUANCO) i ann ncatas yey eee soe 1 | Poison sumac (Rhus verniz)........- 5
Cat brier (Smilax rotundifolia). ....- 1 | Poison ivy (Rhus radicans).........-- 82
Bristly greenbrier (Smilax bona-nor). 1 | Poison oak (Rhus diversiloba)......-- 1
Laurel-leaved brier (Smilax lauri- Sumac (Rhus sp.)........-2-----+--- ll
MOUG) erga ce eee ete eas aoe) 3 | American holly (Ilex opaca)....---- 1
Bayberry (Jfyrica carolinensis). ..... 48 | Dahoon holly (Zlcv cassine).......--- 1
Sweet fern (Comptonia peregrina).... 1 | Ink berry (Ilex glabra).....-....--.- 8
Beech (Fagus americana).......-.--- 1 | Swamp holly (Ilex decidua). ..-....- 1
Hackberry (Celtis occidentalis)... ... 24 | Black alder (Ilex verticillata)......-- 4
Mulberry (Morus rubra)......-2..--- 2 | Burning bush (Auonymus sp.)...--. 1
Pale persicaria (Polygonum lapathi- Frost grape (Tvtis cordifolia).......-. 22
RO UUULTI I Ba en oa ence Oke het ole ral watts 1 | Flowering dogwood (Cornus florida). 16
Lady’s thumb (Polygonum  persi- Rough-leaved dogwood (Cornus as-
COPLG) es seats sess seco edema ke ieee 1 POrUypoud) s. i.e sedeupecedaneew’ 2% 1
Black bindweed (Polygonum convol- Alternate-leaved dogwood (Cornus
UB) Se oo ae ele a eaiteees uy ee ne 2 1 alternifolia) s: ccssszeescdadeees ees 1
Smartweed (Polygonum sp.)...--.-- 4 | Sour gum (Nyssa sylvatica)....-...-- 32
Pokeweed (Phytolacca decandra)..... 5 | Large tupelo (Nyssa aquatica).......- 2
Magnolia (Magnolia foetida)........ 3 | Huckleberry (Gaylussacia sp.)...... 6
Spicebush (Benzoin benzoin)......... 2 | Blueberry (Vaccinium sp.)....-.---- 7
Sand blackberry (Rubus cuneifolius). 1 | Black nightshade (Solanum nigrum). 1
Blackberry or raspberry (Rubus sp.). 15 | Mullein ( Verbascwm thapsus)........ 1
Juneberry (Amelanchier canadensis).. 3 | Black elderberry (Sambucus canaden-
Wild black cherry (Prunus serotina). 30 S18 )in.o Leva apipn yee etiea Mey ys hese’: 11
Chokecherry (Prunus virginiana).... 7 | Red elderberry (Sambucus pubens).. 1
Crab cherry (Prunus avium). ....... 1 | Ragweed (Ambrosia artemisufolia).. 3

Summary.—F rom the point of view of the food analyst the farmer

and horticulturist have very little quarrel with the flicker.
only a few predaceous ground beetles.
food is entirely of harmful species.

It eats
The remainder of the animal
In its vegetable diet, grain and

fruit are the only useful products eaten, and the quantities are insig-
nificant. The bird, like many others, has the bad habit of sowing
broadcast the seeds of the poison Rhus, but there seems no remedy
for this. ,
RED-SHAFTED FLICKER. 59
RED-SHAFTED FLICKER.
(Colaptes cafer collaris and other subspp.)

The red-shafted flicker inhabits that part of North America west-
ward from the Great Plains, where its range meets that of the golden-
winged woodpecker. Typical specimens of Colaptes cafer collaris are
found as far east as South Dakota, central Iowa, and central Texas.
The writer took them in winter at Ames, Iowa, for several years in
succession. The eastern and western forms of the flicker nest in
the same kind of places, their voices and manner of flight are the
same, as are their methods of teeding, and practically their food.
The differences of plumage can be certainly distinguished only when
the bird is near. The western species has one habit which the east-
ern one rarely shares, that of pecking holes in cornices and cupolas
in order to prepare a winter home. As most of the eastern flickers
migrate in winter, the few that remain usually find lodging places
in trees. In California, where the birds do not migrate in winter,
much complaint has been made against them for disfiguring and
injuring buildings.

For the investigation of the food of the red-shafted flicker 183
stomachs were available. They were collected in 10 States and in
British Columbia, but more than three-fourths of them came from
California. They are distributed through every month of the year,
but the warmer seasons are represented by entirely toofew. The food
was found to consist of 67.74 per cent of animal matter to 32.26 of
vegetable. This is over 6 per cent more animal food than is eaten
by the eastern species. This difference occurs almost entirely in the
winter months, when, in the East, the ground is more or less covered
with snow and insects are not readily obtained, while seeds and
berries are still accessible.

Animal food.—Useful Coleoptera, i. e., predaceous ground beetles,
amount to 3.89 per cent of the food, but appear to be eaten very
irregularly. In January and March they amount to 17 per cent of
the food and in November to 7.28 per cent. In two months they
barely reach 1 per cent, and in all the others they are but a trace or
do not appear at all. This would seem to indicate that these insects
are taken only when better food is not at hand. Other beetles
amount to 2.66 per cent. They are largely Scarabeide or May
beetles, most of them in the larval stage. The larve live to a great
extent in rotten wood and rubbish, and some species that live on
plant roots are often turned up by the plow. They seem to form
quite a constant element of the food of both species of flicker. Ants
are the favorite food of this bird as well as of its eastern relative.
They aggregate 53.82 per cent of the food, which is more than 4 per
cent higher than the record of auratus, though it is doubtful if this
60 FOOD OF WOODPECKERS OF UNITED STATES.

difference would hold with a larger number of stomachs. In May
only one stomach of cafer was taken, and it was entirely filled with
ants. Like those eaten by auratus, these ants are to a great extent
taken from the ground, and the usual quantity of sand was found
with them. Ants were found in 127 of the 183 stomachs, and 23
contained no other food. Besides the sand ants, some of the large
species that live in decaying trees and logs were eaten. These of
course are dug out of their burrows. Hymenoptera other than ants
are eaten by this bird so rarely as to be negligible.

Hemiptera, or bugs, constitute 1.84 per cent of the flicker’s diet,
but they are so far from being a favorite food that they were found
in the stomachs collected in only 4 months—January with 1.92 per
cent, April with 12.50 per cent, June with 7.50 per cent, and October
with 0.14 per cent. In each of these months the insects were con-
tained in only one stomach and in April and June were all cicadas,
or harvest flies, but in the January stomach they consisted of those
curious and delicate looking creatures called lace bugs (Tingitide).
Caterpillars amount to 2.12 per cent of the food and are mostly
eaten in the winter and spring months. This is probably owing to
the fact that the species taken are mostly wood borers and are dug
out of decaying wood in the colder season. March is the month of
greatest consumption with 9.11 per cent, and December next with
8.84 per cent. The amount in the other months is small.

Orthoptera aggregate 1.45 per cent and consist of crickets with a
few bits of grasshoppers and locusts. They are all taken from
October to February inclusive, which shows that this bird, although
so terrestrial in its habits, does not join in the grasshopper feast in
summer. White ants (Termes), a few other insects, and spiders
collectively amount to 1.96 per cent and complete the animal food.
Termes are very similar in habits to the true ants, and are often
found and devoured by woodpeckers in their search for ants. Like
true ants, white ants do much mischief by boring into timber, and
are not infrequently found in the woodwork of buildings, which they
sometimes greatly injure, even to the extent of threatening the
stability of the structure.

The following insects were identified in the stomachs:

COLEOPTERA.
Pterostichus permundus. Harpalus sp.
Evarthrus orbatus. Anisodactylus dilatatus.
Amara insignis. Anisodactylus piceus.
Calathus ruficollis. Cheridium histeroides.
Platynus maculicollis. Diabrotica soror.
Axinopalpus biplagiatus. Anthonomus sp.

Harpalus herbivagus. Calandrinus grandicollis.
RED-SHAFTED FLICKER. 61

HYMENOPTERA (ANTS).

Formica subpolita. Cremastogaster lincolata.
Formica neorufibarbis. Cremastogaster sp.
Formiea obscuriventris. Solenopsis geminata.
Formica obscuripes. Prenolepis imparis.
Formica sp. Myrmica lobicornis.
Camponotus marginatus. Myrmica sp.
Lasius americanus. Messor andrei.
Lasius sp.

CRUSTACEA.

Sowbug (Porcellio scaber).
MOLLUSCA.

Snail (Lymnzxa columella).

Vegetable food—Fruit was eaten to the extent of 10.28 per cent of
the red-shafted flicker’s food. It appears to be taken rather irregu-
larly, but probably examination of a greater number of stomachs
would show it to be a pretty regular article of diet, as the eastern
flicker is a constant fruit eater. The greatest amount is taken in
November, when it aggregated 31.84 per cent. September stands
next with 23.75 per cent. Like the eastern species, this bird eats
more fruit in fall and winter than in the warmer months. Grapes
were identified in 12 stomachs, and probably nearly all were of culti- °
vated varieties. Domestic cherries were found in one stomach, what
was thought tobe apple pulp in 9, and fruit pulp not further identi-
fied in 11. This is the whole list of cultivated fruit, if we suppose
the last item to have been of domestic varieties, but as the greater
part of it was taken in the winter or late fall months, probably little
harm was done. Wild fruits of 6 varieties were found in 10 stom-
achs. There appear to be less small fruits or berries available for
bird food on the western side of the Rocky Mountains than on the
eastern. This is well illustrated in the diet of the two flickers; the
eastern species has 31 kinds of wild fruit in its bill of fare to 6 of the
western bird. This difference has been noted in the food of other
closely allied species, one from the East and the other from the West.

Grain amounts to 2.26 per cent of the food. It was found in Janu-
ary, August, October, and November, and consisted of corn in 14
stomachs, barley in 1, and oats in 1. The barley and oats were
taken in January, and were therefore waste grain. The corn must
have been obtained from the standing crop, and indeed much of it
had been eaten while in the milk. This is not, however, a heavy
indictment against the flicker and may well be excused. Seeds of
various shrubs and herbs and some rubbish amount to 19.59 per cent,
and make up the quota of vegetable food. The largest part of this
item consists of seeds of the different poisonous Rhuses, commonly
62 FOOD OF WOODPECKERS OF UNITED STATES.

known as poison ivy or poison oak. They are probably eaten in
every month, though the one stomach taken in May did not contain
any. They were found in 51 stomachs and formed a staple article of
diet in all the cooler months, and in December amounted to more
than half the food. It is in the distribution of these seeds, if any-
where, that the flickers do harm. Seeds of the nonpoisonous Rhuses
(sumac) and of various weeds were eaten occasionally but not in
great quantities. Mast in the shape of acorns was found in 16 stom-
achs, and is probably very acceptable in the absence of better food.
The following fruits and seeds were identified:

Pigweed (Amaranthus sp.). Sumac (Rhus sp.).

Purslane (Portulaca sp.). Pepper berry (Schinus molle).
Gooseberry (Ribes menziest). Woodbine (Parthenocissus quinquefolia).
Bur clover (Medicago denticulatum). Dogwood (Cornus pubescens).

Filaree (Erodium cicutarium). Elder (Sambucus glauca).

Poison ivy (Rhus radicans). Sunflower (Helianthus sp.).

Poison ivy (Rhus aromatica). Star thistle (Centaurea calcitrapa).
Poison oak (Rhus diversiloba). Bur thistle (Centaurea melitensis).

Summary.—The above analysis of the food shows that the farmer
and horticulturist have little to fear from the red-shafted flicker.
In its animal diet it does very little harm, and it consumes no more
of the products of husbandry than it is entitled to. Its greatest
fault is distributing seeds of the poisonous Rhuses, a sin which it shares
with so many other birds that there is no occasion for invidious
comparisons.

IVORY-BILLED WOODPECKER.

(Campephilus principalis.)

The ivory-billed is the largest woodpecker inhabiting the United
States. Unfortunately, it appears to be rapidly becoming extinct.
It originally occupied all the heavily wooded bottom lands from
eastern Texas east to the Atlantic and from southern Indiana and
Illinois south to the Gulf. At present it is confined to the lower
Mississippi Valley and Gulf States and is nowhere numerous.

Only two stomachs of this species have been available for exami-
nation. The contents of these are discussed in detail because of
the interest that attached to this magnificent but vanishing bird
rather than its present economic importance. One stomach con-
tained 32 and the other 20 of the wood-boring cerambycid larve,
which live by boring into trees. These constituted 37.5 per cent of
the whole food. The remainder of the animal food consisted of
engraver beetles (Scolytide) found in one stomach. Of these, three
species were identified—Tomicus avulsus, T. calligraphus, and T.
grandicollis. The total animal food amounted to 38.5 per cent.
OTHER WOODPECKEBRS. 63

The vegetable food consisted of fruit of Magnolia fetida in one
stomach, and of pecan nuts in the other. The average for the two
was 61.5 per cent. This analysis of food indicates that the species,
except for its small numbers, might be of considerable economic
value, as the insects forming the animal portion of the food are
mostly of an injurious character. These powerful birds are able
to reach the wood-boring grubs in places where smaller species fail.
and their large bodies require a great quantity of such food. The
vegetable portion of the food does not indicate that the bird is likely
to attack any products of agriculture, an inference which is strength-
ened by its shy, retiring habits. It is preeminently a wilderness
lover and avoids cleared and cultivated districts.

When we see how much good this woodpecker is capable of doing
as a guardian of the forest, it seems deplorable that it should be
allowed to be exterminated. Wise legislation, backed by intelligent
public opinion, may retard, if not absolutely prevent, the present
destruction and allow the bird to regain something of its former
abundance. There is plenty of room for this splendid species and
much need of its services in the great southern forests.

OTHER WOODPECKERS.

Besides the species of woodpeckers whose food has been discussed
in the preceding pages, a few stomachs of 5 other species have been
received, and, while there are too few to warrant a general discussion
of their food, some mention of its most prominent characteristics
may be made. The following table gives the number of stomachs of
each species and the percentage of animal and vegetable food for each:

 

Number of| Animal Vegetable

Name of species. stomachs. food. food.

 

Texan woodpecker (Dryobates scalaris bairdi)..........-...2.2.2+--- 14 92. 07 7.93
White-headed woodpecker (Xenopicus albolarvatus) Sane 14 38. 93 61. 07
Golden-fronted woodpecker ( Centurus aurifrons).........-- bets 11 54. 73 45. 27
Gila woodpecker ( Centurus uropygialis).........-.2.2-2---- er 1 40. 00 60. 00

 

 

 

 

Gilded flicker ( Colaptes chrysoides)............-.--2------2--.-----+--- 5 88. 00 12.00

 

The Texan woodpecker (Dryobates s. bairdt) shows the ruling char-
acteristic of the genus in its food, for the largest item is wood-boring
beetle larvee. Caterpillars are second in importance, and include a
number of cotton worms (Alabama argillacea), which were found in
some stomachs collected in Texas. Ants are next in rank, and these
three items make up the bulk of the food.

Half of the animal food of the white-headed woodpecker (Xenopicus
albolarvatus) is ants, but the most pronounced characteristic of this
bird is its fondness for the seeds of pines, which constitute more than
half of the food.
64 FOOD OF WOODPECKERS OF UNITED STATES.

The golden-fronted woodpecker (Centurus aurifrons) shows a
decided taste for grasshoppers, which make up half of its animal food.
Its vegetable diet is composed almost entirely of small fruits or berries.

The one. stomach of the Gila woodpecker (Centurus uropygialis)
was largely filled with beetles of the May-beetle family, with a few
bones of a lizard. The vegetable part was mere refuse.

The gilded flicker (Colaptes chrysoides) shares the characteristic
fondness of the genus for ants, which constitute three-fourths of the
whole food. The vegetable part was mostly mast.

O