12 FOOD OF SOME WELL-KNOWN BIKDS. 



The great bulk was eaten in the three winter months and in March 

 and September. The total for the year is 3.99 per cent. Fruit 

 amounts to -27.28 per cent and forms a notable percentage of the 

 food in every month. The month of greatest consumption is August, 

 with 64.10 per cent, while April shows the least, 7.50 per cent. The 

 larger part of this consists of wild fruit, of which 23 species were 

 identified. What was thought to be apple pulp was found in one 

 stomach, cultivated grape in one, and blackberry or raspberry in one. 

 No great preference was shown for any one species of wild berry, but 

 mulberries, woodbine, fox grapes, and sour gum were most commonly 

 found. 



Mast amounts to 30.70 per cent and is the largest item of food. 

 Acorns, beechnuts^ hazelnuts, and pecans make up most of this item. 

 It was found in 178 stomachs and is eaten throughout the year, except 

 in the three summer months. The greatest consumption appears to 

 be in November, when it reaches 67.05 per cent of the month's food, 

 and it does not fall much below this figure until sjoring. This record 

 of mast eating is the largest of any bird of the family, except the 

 California woodpecker. Poison ivy seeds amount to 2.15 per cent 

 and are eaten in every month from August to February, inclusive. 



Summary. — Only one element in the food of the red-bellied wood- 

 pecker has much economic significance. The bird shows a decided 

 taste for fruit and may do injury, as it has in the Florida orange 

 groves. The contents of the stomachs, however, show that wild 

 fruits are preferred, and probably only when these have been re- 

 placed by cultivated varieties is any mischief done. — F. E. L. B. 



SAPSUCKERS. 



(Sphi/rapicus.) 



Of the 23 species of woodpeckers of the United States three only 

 are properly classed as sapsuckers. These birds have short, brushy 

 tongues not adapted to the capture of insects, while the other wood- 

 peckers have tongues with barbed tips which can be extended to 

 spear luckless borers or other insects whose burrows in the Avood 

 have been reached by their powerful beaks. The sapsuckers prac- 

 tically do not feed on wood borers or other forest enemies. Their 

 chief insect food is ants. About 15 per cent of their diet consists of 

 cambium and the inner bark of trees, and they drink a great deal 

 of sap. 



The parts of the tree injured by sapsuckers are those that carry 

 the rich sap which nourishes the growing wood and bark. It is evi- 

 dent, therefore, that the bird's attack on trees may have serious 

 results. "\ATien a small proportion of the bark and cambium are re- 

 moved, the vitality of the tree may only be lowered, or branches 



506 



