248 BIRDS OF ONTARIO. 



the woodpeckers, but feeds largely on insects, which it finds on the 

 outer bark of the trees or catches on the wing. It has been accused 

 of doing serious injury to growing trees, by girdling them to get at 

 the inner bark, on which it is said to feed. Dr. King, of River Falls, 

 in his "Economic Relations of our Birds," exonerates it from this 

 charge, and says that in the stomachs of thirty specimens which he 

 examined, he found in only six a small amount of material resembling 

 the inner bark of trees, and further adds : "No instance in which the 

 bark of trees has been stripped off has come under my observation, 

 nor do I know of a single case in which their puncturings of the 

 bark have been fatal, or even appreciably injurious to the tree." In 

 Southern Ontario a few remain and raise their young, but the 

 majority go farther north. 



This species occurs in Manitoba, and Dr. Cpues says of it : " Com- 

 mon summer resident of wooded sections, plentiful at Pembina, where 

 it was breeding in June ; again seen on the Moose River, not 

 observed farther north." 



