RED-HEADED WOODPECKER. 39 



until they were so weakened as to break down, thereby causing 

 " considerable damage." l 



Ants amount to 5.17 per cent of the food of the redhead, which is 

 the lowest record but one of all the woodpeckers. The greatest 

 number are eaten in June and July, when they aggregate a little 

 more than 14 per cent in each month. As they are mostly taken 

 in the warmer months, it is almost certain that they are captured 

 in the open, not dug out of decaying trees or logs. Hymenoptera 

 other than ants amount to 1.63 per cent. These are of course bees 

 and wasps, and, as this bird is quite skillful in catching insects upon 

 the wing, probably it takes most of them in the air. 2 In one stomach 

 was found one worker honey bee. Parasitic species were identified 

 in a few stomachs. Like the ants, most of the wasps were taken 

 in midsummer. 



Hemiptera, or bugs, are a small but rather regular constituent of 

 the food. They aggregate only 1.89 per cent of the yearly diet, 

 but include some interesting species. A collection of 6 stomachs 

 was received from Ames, Iowa, at a time when a brood of 17-year 

 locusts (Tibicen septendecim) was out. These insects had been 

 eaten by every one of the birds, and they averaged 52 per cent of 

 the stomachs' contents. Field observation, as well as stomach 

 examination, shows that cicadas are eaten in their season by all 

 kinds of insectivorous birds big enough to manage such large insects. 

 Cicadas were found in 10 stomachs, but not all were identified as 

 the 17-year species. Scales (Coccidae), or bark lice, were found in 

 17 stomachs, and in 5 they were identified as the plum or cherry 

 scale (Eulecanium cerasifex). In 1 stomach this species amounted 

 to 60 per cent of the contents. This shows that the bird forages to 

 some extent among the smaller branches and twigs of live trees. 

 A few individuals of several other families of bugs were found, of 

 which Pentatomidse, or stinkbugs, were the favorites. 



Orthoptera, in the shape of grasshoppers, crickets, and cock- 

 roaches and their eggs, were eaten very sparingly throughout the 

 year; but in August, the grasshopper month, the redhead takes 

 to the ground, where it feeds quite freejy upon these insects. They 

 aggregate 21.17 per cent of its diet in August, and in September 9.53 

 per cent, amounting in the two months to two-thirds of the grass- 

 hoppers taken in the year. The average for the year is 3.58 per cent. 

 There is much testimony that many grasshoppers are stored up for 

 future use. They do not, however, constitute a very large element 

 of the food after September. The redhead may share the instinct 



1 Buchler, M. H., Pennsylvania Telephone Co., in letter to Biological Survey, dated Harrisburg, Pa., 

 March 19, 1895. 



2 Sec Merriam, Bull. Nuttall Ornith. Club, III, 120, July, 1878; also Forest and Stream, IX, 451, January 

 17, 1878. 



