154 Indian Museum Notes, [ Vol. IV. 



74 per cent, of insects, 25 per cent, of vegetable matter, and i 

 per cent, of mineral matter or sand. The insects belong to the 

 following orders : Ants [Hymenoptera], beetles {Coleoptera)^ bugs 

 {Hemiptera), flies {Diptera), caterpillars {Lepidoptera), and 

 grasshoppers [Orthoptera). Spiders and myriapods were also 

 present. While all of these were eaten to some extent, they 

 appear in widely different proportions. The ants constitute 

 almost one-third of all the animal food, or about 23 per cent, 

 of the whole, indicating a very decided taste for this rather acid 

 and highly flavoured article of diet. Beetles stand a little higher 

 in order of importance, amounting to about one-third of the entire 

 insect food, or somewhat more than 24 per cent, of all. Many 

 of these belong to the family of May beetles, a few were the 

 predaceous ground beetles, but by far the greatest number were 

 wood-boring larvae, a fact showing that this little bird while securing 

 his dinner is doing good work for the forest. One-fifth of the animal- 

 food, or 16 per cent, of the total, consists of caterpillars, many of 

 which apparently are wood-boring species ; others are kinds that live 

 on stems and foliage. Among insects the most interesting are the 

 bugs {Hemtptera), which are represented in the stomachs by several 

 species, notably by plant-lice {Aphides)^ which in several instances 

 were found in considerable quantities, amounting to 4 per cent, of the 

 whole food. From the minute size and very perishable nature of 

 these insects, it is evident that they must disappear from the 

 stomach in a very short time, and it is fair to infer that many 

 more were eaten than shown by the food remains. Spiders, includ- 

 ing harvestmen or daddy longlegs, were eaten freely, and 

 amounted to nearly one-tenth of the whole. A few bits of snail shell 

 were found in one stomach. 



Eleven Downy Woodpeckers from Kansas collected in winter 

 (December), deserve special notice. Eight of them had eaten the 

 eggs of grasshoppers to an average extent of 10 per cent, of all their 

 food. This, besides being in itself a good work, emphasizes the fact 

 that this bird resorts to the ground for food in case of necessity. 



Professor Samuel Aughey examined four stomachs of the Downy 

 Woodpecker in Nebraska, all of which contained grasshoppers. 



The late Dr. Townend Glover, Entomologist of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, states that the stomach of a Downy Wood- 

 pecker shot in February " was filled with black ants." He states 

 further, " On one occasion a Downy Woodpecker was observed 

 by myself making a number of small rough-edged perfora- 

 tions ia the bark cf a young ash tree, and upon examining the tree 



