OBSERVED IN WESTERN IOWA. 499 



the bark of basswood and other trees; I found spiders, ants, beetles, and " daddy-long-legs" 

 in their stomachs, but no vegetable matter whatever. 1 



68. Centurus carolinus Bon. Red-bellied Woodpecker. Rather common. 



89. Mehnerpes erytkrocephalus Sw. Red-headed Woodpecker. Abundant in and near the 



groves. 



70. Colaptes auratus Sw. Golden-winged Woodpecker. Very common, but, like the rest 

 of the Picidoz, was not seen very far from the timber. 



Strigid^e. 



71. Syrnium nebulosum Gray. Barred Owl. Very common ; the most abundant of the 

 Owls. Frequently seen in the day-time, while at night the groves were often filled with its 

 strange and varied notes. They often strikingly resembled the " Who cooks for you all" attrib- 

 uted °by Wilson to the Great Horned Owl, but in whose notes I have as yet failed to trace 



its resemblance. 



72. Bubo virgimmus Bon. Great Horned Owl. Apparently rare. Only once detected its 



familiar notes. 



73. Scops asio Bon. Mottled Owl. Abundant in and near the timber. 



Falconid^:. 



74. Tinnunculus sparverws Vieill. Sparrow Hawk. Common. One of the most numerous 

 species of Hawk. I often saw it catching large grasshoppers, for which purpose it would 

 hover in the air at a height of a hundred feet or more, intently surveying the ground be- 

 neath, and on discovering its prey descend rapidly to clutch it, but which very often escaped 

 it. When unsuccessful it would rise but a few yards and hover over the spot to rediscover 

 itj failing in which it soon rose to its former height, to continue its search as before. 



' 75. Buteo boreaUs Vieill. 2 Red-tailed Hawk. Common ; chiefly seen in the vicinity of the 

 timber. Shot one that was feeding on a Fox Squirrel (Sciurus ludovicianus Custis). 



76. Buteo Uneatus Jard. Red-shouldered Hawk. Occasionally observed towards autumn. 



l The perforations made in the bark of trees by Woodpeck- may be, in fact, very often seen engaged in it. I do not, how- 



ers forming transverse ring3, and sometimes so numerous as to ever, suppose their object to be the same as that aas.gned to the 



do serious injury to the trees, have of late been very commonly Sphyrapicus varius - that of sucking sap or feedmg on the 



attributed almost solely to this species, especially at the West, inner bark - neither do 1 suppose the peculiar anatomica 



where it is so numerous. That it is, from this habit, often greatly modifications presented by the Spliyrapwi specially contrived 



injurious to fruit and other trees is not to be denied; but that to adapt them to a " xylophagous " diet. In Vermont, where 



this species— now commonly styled the "true Sap-sucker," I have observed S. varius in abundance, no trees were so ex- 



to whose depredations, it is said, should be assigned the general tensively perforated as the hemlock (Abies canaden Sl s Mich.), 



ill-repute attached to the whole family by most agriculturists — a resinous, heavy barked tree. In dozens of specimens whose 



is the sole author of this work, which so often amounts to mis- stomachs I have examined, I have in but a single instance 



chief, there is abundant evidence to disprove. In most parts found any quantity of cambrium, and always more or less in- 



of Massachusetts, particularly in the Connecticut Valley, this sects ; chiefly ants, beetles, and spiders, but rarely or never 



species is so extremely rare that I have never seen more than wood-boring larva. 



half a dozen specimens in a year, and oftener none at all, and 2 A considerable variety of plumage in respect to color was 

 then always durin" its migrations; while other expert collectors observed, from individuals very dark to the types more corn- 

 have searched for It unsuccessfully for years; yet our orchards mon in the Eastern States; these different varieties represent- 

 always present these perforations in profusion, though seldom ing several of the supposed valid, but probably merely nominal 

 to an injurious degree; and now and then a forest tree is ob- species described by Cassin and others from the middle and 

 eerved so thoroughly girdled as to be thus destroyed. For this western parts of the continent. If we admit more than the 

 our Spotted Woodpeckers, Picus pubescens and P. villosus, are well-marked and sufficiently distinct B. borealls, B. Uneatus, 

 chargeable, being in many sections the sole authors of it; they and B. pennsylvanicus, and possibly one other, we may, as Dr. 



