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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 



food are wild fruits of no importance and 

 cambium (the layer Just beneath the 

 bark of trees). In securing the cambium 

 the bird does the damage above described. 

 The yellow-bellied sapsucker, unlike 

 other woodpeckers, thus does compara- 

 tively little good and much harm. 



Downy Woodpecker 



Dryoiates pubescens 

 Length, six inches. Our smallest wood- 

 pecker; spotted with black and white. 

 Dark bars on the outer tail feathers dis- 

 tinguish it from the similarly colored but 

 larger hairy woodpecker. 



Bange 



Resident in the United States and the 

 forested parts of Canada and Alaska. 

 Habits and Economic Status 



This woodpecker is commonly distrib- 

 uted, living in woodland tracts, orchards 

 and gardens. The bird has several char- 

 acteristic notes, and, like the hairy 

 woodpecker, is fond of beating on a dry 

 resonant tree branch a tattoo which to 

 appreciative ears has the quality of wood- 

 land music. In a hole excavated in a 

 dead branch the downy woodpecker lays 

 four to six eggs. This and the hairy 

 woodpecker are among our most valu- 

 able allies, their food consisting of some 

 of the worst foes of orchard and wood- 

 land, which the woodpeckers are espe- 

 cially equipped to dig out of dead and 

 living wood. In the examination of 723 

 stomachs of this bird, animal food, most- 

 ly Insects, was found to constitute 76 per 

 cent of the diet and vegetable matter 24 

 per cent. The animal food consists 

 largely of beetles that bore into timber 

 or burrow under the bark. Caterpillars 

 amount to 16 per cent of the food and 

 include many especially harmful species. 

 Grasshopper eggs are freely eaten. The 

 vegetable food of the downy woodpecker 

 consists of small fruit and seeds, mostly 

 of wild species. It distributes seeds of 

 poison ivy, or poison oak, which is about 

 the only fault of this very useful bird. 



Tellow-Billed fnekoo 



Cocryzus amcricaniis 

 Length, about 12 inches. The yellow 

 lower part of the bill distinguishes this 



bird from its near relative, the black- 

 billed cuckoo. 



Range 

 Breeds generally in the United States 

 and Southern Canada; winters in South 

 America. 



Habits and Economic Status 



This bird lives on the edges of wood- 

 land, in groves, orchards, parks, and even 

 in shaded village streets. It is some- 

 times known as rain crow, because its 

 very characteristic notes are supposed to 

 foretell rain. The cuckoo has sly, furtive 

 ways as it moves among the bushes or 

 flits from tree to tree, and is much more 

 often seen than heard. Unlike its Euro- 

 pean relative, it does not lay its eggs in 

 other birds' nests, but builds a nest of 

 its own. This is, however, a rather crude 

 and shabby affair — hardly more than a 

 platform of twigs sufficient to hold the 

 greenish eggs. The cuckoo is extremely 

 useful because of its insectivorous habits, 

 especially as it shows a marked prefer- 

 ence for the hairy caterpillars, which few 

 birds eat. One stomach that was exam- 

 ined contained 250 American tent cater- 

 pillars; another, 217 fall webworms. In 

 places where tent caterpillars are abun- 

 dant they seem to constitute a large por- 

 tion of the food of this and the black- 

 billed cuckoo. 



Screech Owl 



Otus asio 

 Length, about eight inches. Our small- 

 est owl with ear tufts. There are two 

 distinct phases of plumage, one grayish 

 and the other bright rufous. 



Range 



Resident throughout the United States, 

 Southern Canada, and Northern Mexico. 



Habits and Economic Statos 



The little screech owl inhabits or- 

 chards, groves and thickets, and hunts 

 for its prey in such places as well as 

 along hedgerows and in the open. Dur- 

 ing warm spells in winter it forages 

 quite extensively and stores up in some 

 hollow tree considerable quantities of 

 food for use during inclement weather. 

 Such larders frequently contain enough 

 mice or other prey to bridge over a 



