No. 4.] 



BIRDS AND WOODLANDS. 



309 



adees feeding upon female canker worm moths, picking tliem to 

 pieces before eating them. On Nov. 2G, 1897, I examined the 

 stomach of a white-breasted nuthatch, and found it to contain 1,629 

 eggs of the fall canker worm. There were no moth remains in the 

 stomach, and it is evident tluit the bird gathered these eggs from 

 the trees. 



My friend, Mr. C. E. Bailey, writes that on March 28, 

 1899, a single downy woodpecker made 2G excavations for 

 food between 9.40 a.m. and 12.15 p.m. During this time it 

 climbed over and inspected, in a greater or less degree, 181 

 trees. Most of these 

 excavations exposed gal- 

 leries in the trunks or 

 high branches in which 

 ants were hibernating. 

 An examination of the 

 stomach of this l)ird 

 brought to light 1 spider, 



1 beetle (unidentified), 



2 larvoe of bark beetles 

 (Scoli/iidce) and 22 ants, 

 also some partially di- 

 gested material which 

 could not be identified. 

 At 12.15 the woodpecker 

 was at work thirty-five 

 feet from the ground on 

 the dead end of a broken branch, in which were the channels 

 or galleries of larj>e black ants. The bird had made four 

 openings into these galleries, and in each case had uncovered 

 hibernating black ants. By what sense these motionless in- 

 sects were discovered in their hidden burrows will perhaps 

 always remain a mystery. 



On March 30 a brown creeper was seen to inspect 43 trees 

 in an liour, getting its food from crevices in the bark. 



Another downy woodpecker was seen on IVTarch 31, 1899, 

 taking the larvas of beetles from beneath the bark of oak 

 trees. The bird seemed to know the exact spot to drill for 

 each larva, for it always cut a small hole directly over the 

 insect, finding the prey unerringly. 



Fiu. 2 (reduced two-thirds). — Downy wood- 

 pecker and his excavations. 



