48 FOOD OF WOODPECKERS OF UNITED STATES. 



abundant every year during the winter, but never saw one in the 

 breeding season. It is rather more of a forest bird than some of the 

 other woodpeckers, but is seen frequently in open or thinly timbered 

 country. In the northern part of its range it appears to prefer 

 deciduous growth, but in the south is quite common in pine forests. 

 There is some evidence that this bird is occasionally injurious to 

 the horticulturist. Dr. B. H. Warren says: 



In various sections of Florida, where the red-bellied woodpeckers are exceedingly 

 numerous, in fact by odds the most abundant of all the woodpeckers, the common 

 names of "orange sapsucker" and "orange borer" are universally applied to them. 

 On making inquiry of farmers and others, I learned that the names were given because 

 these woodpeckers "sucked the sap" of orange trees and fed on oranges. Supposing 

 these statements were wrongfully made, I at first gave but little attention to them. 

 When, however, I visited Welaka, Palatka, Volusia, Deland, and other places where 

 numerous orange trees were thriving, I was informed by the orange growers that the 

 red-bellied woodpeckers oftentimes destroyed large numbers of oranges when they 

 had matured and were ready for picking; also, that "they damaged the orange trees 

 by boring holes in them and sucking the sap." I had but little opportunity of making 

 a careful study of this orange-eating habit, so greatly talked about, owing to the fact 

 that when I first visited these localities it was late in February, or after the oranges 

 had been picked and shipped north. In the month of March, 1885, I camped a few 

 days at Bluffton, near Volusia, in an orange grove owned by Mr. Bird, of New York 

 City. This grove contained about 30 acres of trees, which were loaded with fruit, 

 then being picked for market. Through the kindness of Mr. Bird and his overseer, 

 Mr. Curtis, I collected 26 red-bellied woodpeckers in this orange grove. Eleven of 

 these birds had fed to a more or less extent on oranges. 



Three of the 11 stomachs taken from specimens killed in the forenoon, soon after 

 daylight, contained only orange pulp. Eight stomachs showed, in addition to orange 

 pulp, insects and berries. The stomachs of the remaining 15 birds contained no 

 traces of oranges, but revealed chiefly insects, a few berries, and seeds. I examined 

 two dozen or more oranges which had been attacked by the woodpeckers, and found 

 that all had been bored about midway between the stem and blossom end. These 

 holes, always round, varied greatly in size. The birds usually, I think, pick off the 

 skin from a space about the size of an ordinary 5-cent piece, and then eat out the pulp. 

 In an orchard at Hawkinsville, near Deland Landing, on the St. Johns River, I often- 

 times, in the month of April, 1885, found oranges which had been evidently overlooked 

 when the crop was gathered, and in most instances observed that they were bored. 

 In this orchard on one occasion I saw a red-bellied woodpecker eating an orange. He 

 evidently recognized the fact that it was about the last of the season, as he had enlarged 

 the opening sufficiently so that his head was almost entirely hidden in the yellow 

 skin, from the sides of which he picked the few remaining particles of pulp. I was 

 shown orange trees that these "sapsuckers" were said to have bored. These borings, 

 however, did not appear to injure the trees, as they seemed to me to be equally as 

 flourishing as other trees whose trunks showed no marks of a woodpecker's bill. 



Mr. William Brewster has made some observations on this point. 



He says: 



As corroborating Dr. Warren's account * in his late report on the birds of Pennsyl- 

 vania, it may be worth while to state that when at Enterprise, Fla., in February, 

 1889, I observed a red-bellied woodpecker eating the pulp of a sweet orange. He flew 

 down to the ground and, hopping along rather clumsily, approached an orange, and 



Warren, B H., Birds of Pennsylvania, ed. 2, pp. 174-175, 1890. 



