150 Indian Museum Notes, [ Vol. V. 



two stomachs taken in September and October contained corn. 

 For fruit, it seeks the forests and swamps where it finds wild cherries, 

 grapes, and the berries of dogwood and Virginia creeper. It eats 

 fewer seeds of the poison ivy and poison sumac than the Downy. 



The Flicker eats a smaller percentage of insects than either the 

 Downy or the Hairy Woodpecker, but if eating ants is to be considered 

 a virtue, as we have endeavoured to show, then surely this bird must 

 be exalted, for three-fourths of all the insects it eats, comprising 

 nearly half of its wholefood, are ants. It is accused of eating corn ; 

 how little its stomach yields is shown on another page. Fruit con- 

 stitutes about one-fourth of its whole fare, but the bird depends on 

 nature and not on man to furnish the supply. 



Judged by the results of the stomach examinations of the Downy 

 and Hairy Woodpecker and Flicker it would be hard to find three 

 other species of one common birds with fewer harmful qualities. 

 Not one of the trio shows a questionable trait, and they should be 

 protected and encouraged in every possible way. Fortunately, only 

 one, the Flicker, is liable to destruction, and for this bird each farmer 

 and land-owner should pass a protective law of its own. 



The Redhead makes the best showing of the seven species in 

 the kinds of insects eaten. It consumes fewer ants and more 

 beetles than any of the others, in this respect standing at the head, 

 and it has a pronounced taste for beetles of very large size. Un- 

 fortunately, however, its fondness for predaceous beetles must be 

 reckoned against it. It also leads in the consumption of grasshop- 

 pers ; these and beetles together forming 36 per cent, of its whole 

 food. The stomachs yielded enough corn to show that it has a taste for 

 that grain, though not enough to indicate that any material damage 

 is done. It eats largely of wild fruit, and also partakes rather freely 

 of cultivated varieties, showing some preference for the large ones, 

 such as apples. In certain localities, particularly in winter, it feeds 

 extensively on beechnuts. No charge can be brought against it on 

 the score of injuring trees by pecking. 



The Red-bellied Woodpecker is more of a vegetarian than any 

 of the others. In certain localities in Florida it does some damage 

 to oranges, but the habit is not general. On the other hand, it eats 

 quantities of ants and beetles. 



The Yellow-bellied Woodpecker seems to show only one ques- 

 tionable trait, that of a fondness for the sap and inner bark of trees. 

 Both field observations and the contents of the stomachs prove this 

 charge against it, but it is not probable that forest trees are exten- 

 sively injured, or that they ever will be, for aside from the fact that 



