FOOD OF SOME WELL-KNOWN BIRDS OF THE FOREST, 

 FARM, AND GARDEN. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Besides the more common birds of the farm and garden treated in 

 Farmers' Bulletin Xo. 54 there are others less familiarly known, or 

 known only over a smaller area of country. Many of these are of 

 great economic importance in the region they inhabit and are well 

 worth investigation and study. In the following pages the food of 

 twenty species is discussed in its relation to economic interests. 

 The twenty species consist of 8 woodpeckers, 2 hummingbirds, 3 fly- 

 catchers, 1 horned lark, 3 sparrows, 1 butcher bird, 1 warbler, and 1 

 kinglet. Xearly 5,000 stomachs of these birds have been examined, 

 and the general and most important residts are embodied in these 

 pages. Two species, the chipping sparrow and southern butcher bird, 

 are found over the whole country in the breeding season, but migrate 

 to more southern lands on the approach of winter. The snowbird, 

 white-crownecl sparrow, and ruby-crowned kinglet, on the con- 

 trary, make the United States their Avinter home, but retire farther 

 north or to high mountain regions in the breeding season. The 

 horned larks in some of their numerous geographical races occur at 

 some time of the year in nearly all parts of the country, though 

 their distribution in winter is very irregular and uncertain. "With 

 the exception of the sapsuckers, all of these species are more bene- 

 ficial than injurious. As the sapsuckers do much damage, they 

 should be clearly distinguished from the other woodpeckers, Avhich 

 are chiefly beneficial. 



THREE-TOED WOODPECKERS. 



{Picoides arcticvs and Picoidvs amcricanus.) 



The three-toed woodpeckers are residents of the Boreal zones of 

 North America, in Alaska, Canada, the extreme northeastern United 

 States, and in the mountains of the Western States, south to north- 

 ern New Mexico and to central California. The two species, the 

 Arctic three-toed woodpecker {Picoides arcticus) and the American 

 three-toed woodpecker (Picoides americanus) , including the sub- 

 species of the, latter, are so similar in food habits that they may be 



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