292 BULLETIN 17 4, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



the year's food; other Hymeiioptera totaled 1 percent, and miscel- 

 hmeoiis items, such as caterpillars, crickets, and spiders, amounted to 

 5 percent of the food. 



Of the vegetable food, acorns formed 10 percent of the yearly 

 food; grains, including rye, corn, barley, and oats, amounted to 4 

 percent; fruits, averaging 15 percent, included pears, apples, grapes, 

 cherries, and prunes; and the other 17 percent was made up of wild 

 fruits, such as pepperberries, elderberries, and gooseberries and the 

 seeds of the poison oak and sumac and of a few weeds. He says of 

 the poison-oak seeds : 



The consumption of these seeds would he a decided benefit to man if tliey 

 were ground up and destroyed in the stomachs. Unfortunately they are either 

 regurgitated or pass through the intestinal tract uninjured and ready to 

 germinate. The action of the stomach simply removes the outer covering, a 

 white, wax-like substance, which is probably very nutritious, and is evidently 

 relished by many birds. Birds are proliably the most active agents in the 

 dissemination of these noxious shrubs. On the other hand, these seeds, which 

 are wonderfully abundant, afford food for thousands of birds during the winter, 

 when other food is hard to obtain, and thns enable the birds to tide over the 

 cold season to do their good work of destroying insects the next summer. 



Johnson A. Neff (1928) says that "in a great many instances they 

 are known to feed on the larvse of the codling moth" ; and that "ants 

 were the largest item of food for the year, averaging 40.307o, taken 

 during every month; several stomachs held over 2,000 each, and many 

 of them contained over 500." Among the vegetable food he lists 

 manzanita berries and seeds and such wild fruits as madrona, dog- 

 wood, haw, serviceberry, elderberry, Oregon crab, and huckleberry; 

 seeds of poison oak averaged 7.5 percent, but in December the per- 

 centage was 33.3. 



Referring to the fruit-eating habits of this flicker in Los Angeles 

 County, Calif., Robert S. Woods (1932) writes: 



Fortunately for the grower, and perhaps for the l)irds as well, the rind of an 

 orange is impervious to the attacks of any ordinary bird, though when once 

 opened the fruit is well liked by many of them. Only the Red-shafted Flicker 

 {Colaptcs cafer collaris) is able to chisel through the tough skin; after making 

 a round opening large enough for the insertion of its bill, it scoops out a large 

 portion of the pulp with its tongue. Examples of this sort of damage, however, 

 are infrequent and usually, as it seems, in oranges which have fallen to the 

 ground, where they are more easily reached. 



The flicker's attacks on avocados appear more serious, though this is partly 

 due to the smaller numbers of the fruit available. Avocados which hang near 

 a convenient perch are often found to have a roughly circular hole extending 

 through to the seed. In a few of the fruits these holes have been considerably 

 enlarged, but usually they are not much larger than the base of the bird's bill. 



Jack C. von Bloeker, Jr. (1935), saw three red-shafted flickers 

 capture scarab "beetles in flycatcher fashion. In each case, the bird 

 attained a position behind its intended victim, then, taking up the 



