8 POOD OP SOME WELL-KNOWN BIKDS. 



per cent. No wood-boring larvas were found. Ants amount to 8.09 

 per cent of the food. In the one stomach taken in March they con- 

 stitute 50 per cent of the contents, but in no other are they an impor- 

 tant element. Other Hymenoptera amount to 7.34: per cent, and 

 more than half of these were contained in stomachs taken in August. 

 in which month they aggregate 37.33 per cent. A few black olive 

 scales and other bugs, some flies, and grasshoppers make up the re- 

 mainder of the animal food — 4.49 per cent. • 



Vegetable food. — Grain, fruit, and mast are the three items that 

 compose the vegetable food. One stomach taken in January con- 

 tained nothing but corn, and another collected in December con- 

 tained nothing but a few corn hulls. This is the whole grain record 

 and is of no economic interest. The average for the year is but little 

 more than 1 per cent. Fruit amounts to a little less than 23 per 

 cent. Most of it was the pulp of the larger cultivated varieties. The 

 largest amounts were eaten in August and September, when they 

 reached 59.34 and 54 per cent, respectively. Seeds of elderberries 

 (Samhucus) were found in two stom.ichs and was the only fruit 

 positively identified. 



The principal item of food of the California woodpecker is 

 acorns. This amounts to 53.30 per cent of the yearly diet and was 

 found in 58 stomachs, or 69 per cent of the whole, and 23 contained 

 nothing else. It is eaten in every month and attains its maximum 

 of 93.58 per cent in November and its minimum of 29.47 in July. 

 The question has been raised as to whether the bird stores the acorn 

 for the sake of its meat or for the grub which may frequently 

 develop therein. The examination of the stomachs removes all 

 doubt, for while acorns are eaten frequently, larvae are almost 

 entirely wanting. Wiere almonds are largely cultivated and this 

 bird is abundant it exhibits a strong liking for this nut and stores 

 it instead of acorns in its holes. In some cases it has been found 

 necessary to shoot the birds whenever they entered the orchard in 

 order to save the crop. 



Summary. — The foregoing shows that the food of the California 

 woodpecker is not of much economic importance. It does not prey 

 extensively upon the products of industry, except occasionally upon 

 almonds, and its insect diet contains practically no useful species. 

 Its worst sin is its propensity to puncture the cornices and casings 

 of buildings and telegraph and telephone poles in order to store its 

 nuts for winter use. This is a serious injury and will justify the 

 destruction of the bird if no other remedy can be devised. — F.E.L.B. 



LEWIS WOODPECKER. 



(Asyndesmiis TcidUi. ) 



The Lewis woodjDecker is irregularly distributed over that part of 

 the United States west of the western edge of the Great Plains, north 



506 



