No. 3.] Reprints and Miscellaneous Notes. 159 



ing and high-nesting proclivities, and may often be seen walking 

 about in the grass like a meadow lark. 



In the investigation of its food habits 230 stomachs were 

 examined, taken in every month of the year, although January and 

 February have but i each. They were collected in 22 States, the 

 District of Columbia, and the North-West Territory, and are fairly 

 well distributed over the region east of the Rocky Mountains. They 

 contained 56 per cent, of animal matter, 39 per cent, of vegetable, 

 and 5 per cent, of mineral. It will be seen that the quantity of 

 animal or insect material is less than in either of the preceding 

 specieSj and the mineral matter somewhat greater. The following 

 orders of insects were represented : Ants [Hymenoptera), beetles 

 {Celeoptera)f bugs {Hemiptera), grasshoppers and crickets (Or- 

 thoptera), caterpillars {Lepidoptera), Mayflies {Epkemerida) and 

 white-ants [Isoptera). Spiders and myriapods also were present. 

 An inspection of this insect matter shows the rather remarkable 

 fact that more than three-fourths of it, or 43 per cent, of the whole 

 food, consists of ants. If the mineral matter is thrown out as not 

 being properly food, we find that more than 45 per cent, of the 

 Flicker's food for the year consists of ants. Among the stomachs 

 examined several contained nothing but arts. In two of these the 

 actual number of ants present in each stomach exceeded 3,000. 

 These were mostly small species that live in burrows in the earth, 

 so that it is evident that when Flickers are seen upon the ground 

 they are usually in search of ants, although the other insects found 

 in the stomachs account in part for this ground feeding habit. Pro- 

 fessor Samuel Aughey examined eight stomachs of Flickers in Dixon 

 Country, Nebr., in June 1865. All of them contained grasshoppers, 

 and the number in each stomach varied from 15 to 48. 



As a large part of the food of the seven woodpeckers studied 

 consists of ants, the question may be asked whether the birds are 

 doing good or harm by destroying them. There are so many different 

 species of these insects, and they have such widely different habits, 

 that it is difficult to make any assertion that will apply to all, but it 

 is safe to say that many kinds are decidedly harmful, because they 

 attend, protect and help to spread plant, root and bark lice of 

 various species. These lice are among the worst enemies of plant 

 life and everything which tends to prevent their destruction is 

 prejudicial to the interests of agriculture. Other species of ants 

 destroy timber by burrowing in it ; still others, in warmer climates 

 do much harm to fruit trees by cutting off the leaves and under- 

 mining the ground. Many species infest houses and buildings 



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