198 BULLETIN 174, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



in fact they were persecuted to such an extent that they must have been driven 

 from the locality, for I was unable to find them after July 30. 



Some "writers have said that only one brood is raised in a season, 

 and others that two broods are raised only in the southern part of 

 the breeding range. But Mr. DuBois reports two broods in Minne- 

 sota; and Mr. Potter one brood one season and two broods the next 

 season for his pair in New Jersey. 



Plumages. — The young are hatched naked and blind, but they 

 acquire the ju venal plumage before they leave the nest. The sexes 

 are alike in all plumages, and the ju venal plumage is quite unlike 

 that of the adult. In the juvenal plumage, the head, neck, and 

 upper chest are brownish graj^, spotted above and streaked below 

 with dusky; the back is black but not glossy as in the adult; the 

 wings are as in the adult, except that the secondaries and tertials 

 are white but more or less patterned or barred with black, chiefly 

 near the tips, and the primaries are edged with buffy white on the 

 outer webs; the under parts below the chest are dull white, clouded 

 with brownish gray and more or less streaked with dusky, chiefly on 

 the sides and flanks. This plumage is usually worn in its purity 

 through July and August and sometimes into October, though some- 

 times a few red feathers are seen in the head; I have seen two 

 or three red feathers in the head as early as June 29 and a bird not 

 much farther advanced on December 1. But usually the complete 

 molt into the adult plumage begins in September and lasts through 

 winter; the change begins on the head and back in fall, but the 

 wings are not usually molted until April, and even then some of the 

 juvenal secondaries may be retained. Most young birds are in prac- 

 tically adult plumage before May. 



Adults have a complete postnuptial molt in August and September ; 

 they may have a j^artial molt in spring, but I have not seen it. Some 

 highly plumaged birds, probably old birds and mostly from western 

 localities, have the abdomen tinged with red. 



Food. — Much has been written on the food habits of the red- 

 headed woodpecker, a most resourcefid feeder on a greatly varied 

 diet. Prof. F. E. L. Beal (1895) makes the following report on the 

 contents of 101 stomachs, collected throughout the year in various 

 parts of the country : 



Animal matter, 50 percent ; vegetable matter, 47 percent ; mineral matter, 

 3 percent. * * * The insects consist of ants, wasps, beetles, bugs, grass- 

 hoppers, crickets, moths, and caterpillars. Spiders and myriapods also were 

 found. Ants amounted to about 11 percent of the whole food. * * * Beetle 

 remains formed nearly one-third of all food. * * * The families repre- 

 sented were those of the common May beetle (Lachnosterna) , which was found 

 in several stomachs, the predaceous ground beetles, tiger beetles, weevils, and 

 a few others. * * * Weevils were found in 15 stomachs, and in several 

 cases as many as 10 were present. Remains of Carabid beetles were found 



