12 THE FOOD OP WOODPECKERS. 



has discovered a decayed spot inhabited by wood-boring larvae or a 

 colony of ants. 



One hundred and forty stomachs of the Downy Woodpecker have 

 been examined. They were collected during every month in the year 

 and in 21 States, the District of Columbia, Ontario, and New Bruns- 

 wick. A few of the western subspecies {Bryobates pubescens gairdneri), 

 from British Columbia, have been included. The stomachs contained 

 74 percent of insects, 25 percent of vegetable matter, and 1 percent 

 of mineral matter or sand. The insects belong to the following orders : 

 Ants {Hymenoptera), beetles (Goleoptera), 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 flavored 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 percent of all. Many of these belong 

 to the family of May beetles, a few were thepredaceous 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 percent 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 (Hemiptera), 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 percent 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, including harvestmen or daddy longlegs, were eaten freely, 

 and amounted to nearly one-tenth of thewhole. A few bits of snail 

 shell were found in one stomach. 



Eleven Downy Woodpeckers from Kansas collected in winter (De- 

 cember) deserve special notice. Eight of them had eaten the eggs of 

 grasshoppers to an average extent of 10 percent of all their food. 

 This, besides being in itself a good work, emphasizes the fact that this 

 bird resorts to the ground for food iu case of necessity. 



Prof. Samuel Aughey examined 4 stomachs of the Downy Wood- 

 pecker in Nebraska, all of which contained grasshoppers. 



The late Dr. Townend Clover, entomologist of the Department of 

 Agriculture, states that the stomach of a Downy Woodpecker 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 perforations in the bark of a young ash 



