]SrORTHERN FLICKER 279 



The flicker feeds freely on the seeds of the poison ivy and poison 

 sumac and perhaps does some harm in distributing the seeds of these 

 noxious plants. Professor Beal (1S95) also includes the seeds of other 

 sumacs, clover, grasses, pigweed, mullein, ragweed, and other uniden- 

 tified seeds, and the seeds of the magnolia and knotweed. Mr. Burns 

 (1900) adds wild strawberries, dewberries, raspberries, and wild 

 plums, also acorns, beechnuts, corn from shocks, and oats, wheat, and 

 rye from stacks. 



The birds that Miss Sherman (1910) watched in their nesting box 

 ate considerable sawdust. "That at one time the male ate three 

 tablespoonfuls is deemed a modest estimate. An attempt to measure 

 the amount both ate by a fresh supply daily showed the consumption 

 of three or more handfuls. The sawdust came from sugar maple, 

 white and red oak wood." She seemed to think that flickers have 

 "little use for water," having seen them drink only twice, during 

 many hours of watching from a blind, "all of which taken together 

 would amount to weeks." Owen Durfee speaks in his notes of having 

 seen three flickers drinking, or eating, snow on a cold day in winter ; 

 he saw one drop down onto a patch of snow on a stone wall and begin 

 eating the snow. "His motions were just like a chicken drinking 

 water — the partly closed bill was dipped into the snow and then 

 held up in the air and the mandibles worked as though chewing or 

 dissolving it, when another dip would be made. Soon two other 

 flickers flew down in the same manner and secured some snow water. 

 On approaching, I found the footprints and several little round holes 

 somewhat smaller than a pencil." 



I have often seen them drinking water and so have other observers : 

 perhaps they drink copiously but not often. 



Francis H. Allen says in his notes : "I have seen one feeding in the 

 manner of a chickadee among the twigs of a tree, perching crosswise 

 of the twig and flitting about actively, gleaning some minute food. 

 Mr. Brewster told me that he had seen a flicker feeding this way." 



Joseph J. Hickey tells me that he has seen a flicker feeding after 

 the manner of an Arctic three-toed woodpecker, deliberately scaling 

 oif the bark in search for food ; this bird had denuded about half the 

 bark of a hemlock. 



Behavior. — In ordinary short flights, the flicker proclaims its 

 relationship to the other woodpeckers by its rhythmic bounding 

 flight, the wings beating more rapidly on the rises and much less 

 so on the dips, which are usually followed by a short sail on motion- 

 less wings. Mr. Burns (1900) noted that the dips occur about every 

 15 or 20 feet and that the bird drops about 3 feet on each dip. On 

 more prolonged flights the flight is steadier, more direct, strong, and 

 fairly swift. It does not ordinarily fly at any great height, except 

 when migrating. Wlien alighting on a tree trunk, there is a graceful 



