FOOD OF SOME WELL-KNOWN BIKDS. 11 



In Florida the bird has been observed to eat oranges to an injuri- 

 ous extent. It attacks the overripe fruit and pecks holes in it and 

 sometimes completely devours it. The fruit selected is that which 

 is dead ripe or partly decayed, so it is not often that the damage is 

 serious. The bird also sometimes attacks the trunks of the orange 

 trees as aacU as others and does some harm. 



For the investigation of the food of the red-bellied woodpecker 

 271 stomachs were available. In the first analysis the food was 

 found to consist of 30.94 per cent of animal matter to 69.06 of vege- 

 table. The former consists of insects and spiders, with a few tree 

 frogs and lizards, while the latter may be considered as made up of 

 grain, fruit, and mast. 



Animal food. — Predatory beetles amount to 0.86 per cent and con- 

 sist of some of the larger genera. Other beetles, all more or less 

 harmful, aggregate 9.32 per cent of the food. Six species of weevils 

 or snout beetles were identified and 14 individuals were taken from 

 one stomach. There were also a number of wood-boring larvae, 

 which must have been dug out of the wood, thus benefiting the 

 forest. Beetles form a pretty steady article of diet, and, starting 

 with 3.62 per cent in January, they increase with fair regularity to 

 Maj', when they attain the maximum of 27.57 per cent, from which 

 they slowly decrease to l.per cent in December. 



Ants are eaten to the extent of 0.45 per cent of the food and are a 

 fairly constant article of diet. The most, are taken during the warmer 

 months. Evidently this bird does not dig all the ants which it eats 

 from decaying wood, like the downy woodpecker, but, like the 

 flickers, collects them from the ground and the bark of trees. Other 

 Hymenoptera amount to 1.45 per cent. Orthoptera (grasshoppers, 

 crickets, cockroaches, etc.) constitute 5.89 per cent of the food. They 

 were found in 51 stomachs, grasshoppers in 27, eggs of cockroaches 

 in 15, crickets in 8, and a mantis (devil's rearhorse) in 1. Two 

 stomachs contained the eggs of grasshoppers. Cockroaches were 

 represented entirely by their egg cases (ootheca). Hemiptera, or 

 bugs, amount to 1.86 per cent of the food and form a small but fairly 

 regular constituent of the monthly diet. Scales were found in one 

 stomach, but most of the bugs eaten were of larger species and the 

 majority were Pentatomidse, or stink bugs. Caterpillars were taken 

 with considerable regularity and averaged 2.88 per cent of the diet. 

 A few of them were identified as wood borers. Spiders and millipeds, 

 Avith a few doubtful insects and small vertebrates, made up 2.29 per 

 cent, the remainder of the animal food. Spiders are eaten at all 

 times, but in trifling quantities. Small tree frogs were found in 9 

 stomachs and remains of lizards in 2. 



Vegetable food. — Corn was the only grain found. It was contained 

 in 39 stomachs and rather irregularly distributed through the year. 



506 



