THE WOODPECKERS, KINGFISHERS, AND CUCKOOS. 183 



trees, usually in the forest, and rears from four to six young. 

 No birds search more persistently for the wood-boring grubs 

 living beneath the bark of trees, many of which — like the 

 flat-headed borer — are the most vexatious enemies of the 

 fruit-grower. During their meanderings over the trunk and 

 larger limbs they often startle moths and other nocturnal 

 insects, which they devour whenever opportunity offers, and 

 they also penetrate the disguise of many geometric caterpillars 

 and cut short their deceptive careers. A good idea of the gen- 

 eral diet of the species may be obtained from Professor King's 

 statement that of twenty-one specimens examined, "eleven 

 had eaten fifty-two wood-boring larvae ; live, thirteen geometric 

 caterpillars ; ten, one hundred and five ants ; six, ten beetles ; 

 two, two cockroaches; two, nine egg-cases of cockroaches ; 

 two, two moths ; one, a small snail ; one, green corn ; one, a 

 wild cherry ; and one, red elder-berries." 1 More than two- 

 thirds of the food of eighty-two specimens studied by the 

 Department of Agriculture was animal matter, chiefly insects. 



In the presence of an unusual abundance of grasshoppers 

 the hairy woodpeckers feed freely on them ; four Nebraska 

 specimens had eaten one hundred and fifty-seven of these 

 insects. They also do good service in penetrating the cocoons 

 of the cecropia emperor moth, the larvae of which devour 

 the foliage of fruit- and shade-trees. A number of observers 

 have reported that these birds push their beaks through the 

 tough cocoons until the pupae inside are. reached, the juices of 

 the latter being sucked away. They have also been credited 

 with having in 1880 "cleaned elm-trees in Cleveland, Ohio, 

 of the cocoons of the tussock-moth. " 



Concerning the beneficent habits of the hairy woodpecker, 

 Dr. P. R. Hoy, a well-known naturalist, wrote many years 

 ago : " Cheerful and industrious, he is always on the lookout 

 for those worms that burrow in the substance of the wood or 

 under the bark of trees. He is an expert at auscultation and 

 percussion, and he is not indebted to Laennec for the art 



