BIRDS AND HORTICULTURE 



peckers continue the search during winter. 

 Much of the food of the Downy ^Woodpecker 

 consists of antsA plant-lice, wood-borers, larvae 

 and adults of wood-boring coleopterous insects, 

 beetles on foliage and bark, and caterpillars that 

 bore into the trees or live on the leaves. They 

 destroy the bugs that give berries a disagree- 

 able taste, bark-lice, and scale-insects. The food 

 of the Hairy Woodpecker is the same as that of 

 the Downy. It destroys fewer ants, but feeds 

 upon beetle larvae, caterpillars, and winter hiber- 

 nating insects and insect eggs. The Flicker, or 

 Golden- Winged Woodpecker, eats an enormous 

 number of ants, but fewer beetles and cater- 

 pillars. The food is secured largely from the 

 ground, where his color makes him the least con- 

 spicuous of the woodpeckers. 



Nuthatches and Creepers destroy an immense 

 number of eggs and larvae, examining every 

 crack and crevice in the bark of trees. Wood- 

 peckers run up the trees. Creepers run spirally 

 from the base of the trunk to the top. Nut- 

 hatches run up or down or along the under side 

 of a horizontal limb with equal facility, perform- 

 ing most interesting acrobatic feats. 



The Yellow and Black-Billed Cuckoos are 

 very valuable to the gardener. They destroy the 

 larvae of moths and butterflies, some of the most 

 serious insect pests. They render the greatest ) 



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