284 ECONOMIC ZOOLOGY AND ENTOMOLOGY 



found in this country only a few kinds ever raid barnyards or 

 pastures, while the same kinds, together with all the others, 

 make way with many noxious rodents and large insects, such 

 as grasshoppers, crickets and June bugs. Their captures of 

 other birds are, however, mostly to be deplored, and two species 

 of small hawks, Cooper's hawk and the sharp-shinned hawk, 



FIG. 130. Red-headed woodpecker, Melanerpes erythroccphalus, young at 

 opening of nest to receive food from the mother. (Photograph by J. M. 

 Slonaker.) 



deserve to be shot on sight, for they feed almost entirely on 

 wild birds and poultry. 



There are twenty-three species of woodpeckers in the 

 United States, and the food of twenty of them consists chiefly 

 of insects, usually wood-boring grubs. These birds do much 

 good by destroying many insect pests of trees. But there 

 are three kinds, with short brushy tongues not adapted to 



