90 BULLETIN 174, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Among the insect food, the most prominent items seem to be the 

 larvae of the very harmful wood-boring beetles Cerambycidae and 

 Elateridae ; other beetles are eaten largely, as well as ants and other 

 Hymenoptera, scales, plant lice and other bugs, weevils, cater- 

 pillars, spiders, flies, and millipeds. Prof. Beal (1911) says: "Two 

 stomachs contained each between 30 and 40 box-elder bugs {Lep- 

 tocoris 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." 



The vegetable food consists mainly of wild fruits, such as black- 

 berries, elderberries, and the seeds of poison-oaks; a few acorns and 

 some grain are occasionally eaten. Grinnell, Dixon, and Linsdale 

 (1930) write: "Trees that this woodpecker foraged over were syca- 

 more, cotton, valley oak, blue oak (most frequently), digger pine, 

 yellow pine (rarely), and orchard trees. On June 3, 1926, one was 

 seen feeding on cherries in an orchard near Manton." 



Behavior. — Florence M. Bailey (1902) says of this little wood- 

 pecker : 



It has a nuthatch-like way of flying up to light on the underside of a limb, 

 and when hanging upside down turns itself around with as much ease as a fly 

 on a ceiling. * * * 



He is a sturdy little fellow, and in flight will sometimes rise high in air and 

 fly long and steadily, dipping only slightly over the brush. He has the full 

 strength of his convictions and will drive a big flicker from a sycamore and 

 then stretch up on a branch and call out triumphantly. Two Nuttalls trying 

 to decide whether to fight are an amusing sight. They shake their feathers and 

 scold and dance about as if they were aching to fly at each other, but couldn't 

 quite make up their minds to so grave a matter. 



Voice. — The same writer says of the voice of Nuttall's wood- 

 pecker: "At times the small Nuttall waxes excited, and shakes his 

 wings as he gives his thin, rattling call. All his notes are thin, and 

 his qiAee-quee-quee-quee'^p has a sharp quality. His chif tah is a 

 diminutive of the yV coh of the California woodpecker." 



Ralph Hoffmann (1927) says: "One cannot remain long near a 

 grove of live oaks in the foothills of California without hearing from 

 some tree a hoarse ringing call 'prrip., often lengthened to a rattling 

 prm'TTt. It has the exclamatory quality of the Hairy Woodpecker's, 

 but is less clear and metallic, with more burr. * * * Like the 

 other woodpeckers the Nuttall, particularly in spring, drums on 

 resonant timber or telephone poles; it also gives at that season a 

 rapid, squealing quee quee quee quee^ 



Mr. Dawson (1923) says that this woodpecker "always has a 

 grouch on, and you are sure to be challenged as you pass, by repe- 

 tition of his double notes of distrust, ticket, ticket — ticket it.'''' 



Field marks. — Nuttall's woodpecker closely resembles the cactus 

 woodpecker, and where the ranges of the two species come together, 



