The Flicker 255 



The flicker, although one of the woodpeckers, has habits 

 quite different from the majority of its family. Instead of drill- 

 ing holes in trees for all of its living, it gets most of its food 

 from the ground. Nearly half of its food consists of ants. In 

 two hundred and thirty stomachs examined at Washington 

 fifty-six per cent, was animal matter, thirty-nine per cent, veg- 

 etable, and five per cent mineral. Two of them contained over 

 three thousand ants each. Other insects consisted of beetles, 

 bugs, grasshoppers, crickets, caterpillars, May-flies, and white 

 ants. 



In the chapter on the cardinal the various kinds of birds' 

 bills and the various uses to which they are put is mentioned. 

 One of the uses not mentioned there is that of dressing or 

 preening of the feathers. The illustration accompanying this 

 chapter shows the flicker in the act of doing this. It is done 

 by drawing the feathers from their base outward between the 

 mandibles. Not only do they clean the"m but they also oil 

 them. For this purpose Nature has provided them with an oil 

 gland which is constantly replenished, so that the bird is never 

 without a supply. This gland is located under the upper tail 

 coverts, and is always cut out when a fowl is being dressed for 

 the table. Our illustration shows the bird in the act of reach- 

 ing for it. The oil is extracted by the bird's pinching or press- 

 ing the gland with its mandibles. 



