26 



THE FOOD OP WOODPECKERS. 



26 percent and vegetable matter 74 percent. A small quantity of 

 gravel was found in 7 stomachs, but was not reckoned as food. Ants 

 were found in 14 stomachs, and amounted to 11 percent of the whole 

 food. Adult beetles stand next in importance, aggregating 7 percent 

 of all food, while larval beetles only reach 3 percent. Caterpillars had 

 been taken by only 2 birds, but they had eaten so many that they 

 amounted to 4 percent of the whole food. The remaining animal food 

 is made up of small quantities of bugs [Hemiptera), crickets ( Orthoptera), 

 and spiders," with a few bones of a small tree frog found in 1 stomach 

 taken in Florida. 



Dr. B. H. Warren states that the stomachs of 3 Eed-bellied Wood- 

 peckers captured in winter in Chester and Delaware counties. Pa., con- 

 tained black beetles, larva, fragments of acorns, and a few seeds of 

 wild grapes. The stomachs of 8 adults from the St. Johns Eiver, 

 Florida, contained red seeds of 2 species of palmetto, but no insects. 

 Two additional stomachs from the same locality contained palmetto 

 berries, fragments of crickets {Nemobius and Oracharis saltator), a pal- 

 metto ant {Gamponotus escuriens), and numerous joints of a myriapod, 

 probably Julus} 



Dr. Townend Glover found in the stomach of a Eed-bellied Wood- 

 pecker killed in December " pieces of acorns, seeds, and gravel, but no 

 insects. Another, shot in December, contained wing-cases of Buprestis, 

 and a species of wasp or Polistes, acorns, seeds, and no bark. A third, 

 shot in May, was filled with seeds, pieces of bark, and insects, among 

 which was an entire Lachnosterna, or May bug."^ 



The vegetable food of the Eed-bellied Woodpecker contained in the 

 22 stomachs examined by the division consisted of the following seeds 

 and fruits : 



Grain : 



Corn. 

 Fruit : 



Mulberries {Morvs ruira). 



Wild grapes ( Vitis cordifolia). 



Virginia creeper (Parthenociaeus quin- 

 quefolia). 



Elderberries {Samiucus canadensis). 



Eough-leaved cornel {Cornua asperi- 

 folia). 



Fruit — Continued. 



Saw palmetto {Sabal serrulata). 



Holly {Ilex opaea). 



Wild sarsaparilla (Aralia nudioauUs). 



Bayberries {Myrica cerifera). 



Pine {Pinus eohinata). 



Poison ivy {Rhus radicana). 



Eagweed {Ambrosia sp.). 



Corn was found in only 2 stomachs. The other items were well dis- 

 tributed, and none of them appear to be specially preferred, unless it 

 may be the poison ivy, which was found in 6 stomachs, and amounted to 

 nearly 12 per cent of the whole food. Although 8 of the 22 birds were 

 collected in Florida, no trace of the pulp of oranges was discovered, but 

 that oranges are eaten by them is shown by the following interesting 

 notes. 



> Birds of Pennsylvania 2d ed., 1890, pp. 174, 175. 

 ^ U. S. Agrio. Eept. for 1865, 1866, p. 38. 



