98 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



placed in my hands by Professor Baird for examination : as the 

 specimens are alcoholic, the soft parts are, as is always the case, 

 too much distorted to be available for correct comparisons ; the 

 gizzard, however, seems smaller, and the proventriculus larger, than 

 in other species of this family with which I have compared them. 

 The contents of the stomach are berries, small coleoptera, larvae of 

 boring beetles, ants, and fragments of the inner bark of the apple- 

 tree." 



After giving minute analyses of the characteristics of the 

 tongues and portions of the skulls of the different small 

 woodpeckers, and comparing them with the Yellow-bellied 

 Woodpecker's, showing how the latter differ from the others, 

 he says : — 



" The general shape of the whole tongue is not much unlike that 

 of the Robin ; the ciliated edges show an analogy to the Melipha 

 gidce, and indicate that the sap of the trees pecked by them may 

 form a portion of their food. In the stomachs of the six individuals 

 examined by me, fragments of the inner bark were found in all, so 

 that it can hardly be presumed to have been accidentally introduced. 

 It is evident, from the shape of the tongue, that it is not used as a 

 dart, in the manner of the true Woodpecker, to draw out insects 

 from their lurking-places, but that these are seized by the bill, as in 

 other insectivorous birds. Insects, however, probably form their 

 chief diet, as all the stomachs examined also contained insects, the 

 quantity of which was greater than that of the fragments of bark : 

 in one bird, there were two larvae of a boring beetle, so large that 

 there was not room for both in the stomach at once, and one re- 

 mained in the lower part of the oesoi^hagus. If these were, as is 

 probable, the larvae of the Saperda, they would do more damage 

 than twenty woodpeckers ; and I sincerely hope that these birds are 

 not to be exterminated, unless it is clearly demonstrated that the 

 injury caused by the destruction of the bark is not more than com- 

 pensated by their destruction of noxious insects." 



About the 1st of May, the Yellow-bellied Woodpecker 

 commences excavating its hole, which is usually in a de- 

 cayed tree in the woods, but occasionally in a sound tree. 



