NUTTALL WOODPECKEll. 2S 



Hemiptera are eaten to the extent of 8.16 per cent of the food, and 

 a good proportion of them are scales or bark Hce. The others are 

 mostly pentatomids or soldier-bugs. Kearly all were taken in the 

 five months from December to April, inclusive, and two-thirds of them 

 in December and January. These insects, and especially the penta- 

 tomids, are lovers of warm weather and smishine, and many of them 

 Hve on fruit. It seems probable that this bird gets them from their 

 hibernating places. Grasshoppers, crickets, cockroaches, caterpillars, 

 white ants (Termes), and spiders make up the rest of the animal food, 

 5.13 per cent. The cockroaches were in the form of their egg cases 

 (ootheca). 



The following is a list of insects identified in the stomachs : 



COLEOPTERA. 



GastToidea sp. Trogosita chloridea. 



Trogosita virescens. Tomicus cacographus. 



HYMENOPTERA. 



Ant {Camponotus sodus). Ant (Cremastogaster Ixviuscula). 



HEMIPTERA. 



Green tree bug ( Nezara hilaris) . 



Vegetable food. — The greater part of the vegetable food consists of 

 mast, mostly composed of the seeds of conifers. They were found in 

 26 of the 76 stomachs, and appear to be a somewhat regular article of 

 diet, especially in the colder months. The total amount for the year 

 is 11.13 per cent. Fruit pulp, poison-ivy seeds, bayberry seeds, seeds 

 not identified, cambium, and rubbish each occurred in a few stomachs, 

 and altogether amount to about 8 per cent of the food. Fruit pulp 

 was found in 5 stomachs, but none of it could be further identified. 

 Cambium was contained in 4 stomachs, and seeds of poison ivy in 1. 

 Evidently this food has little economic interest. 



The following seeds were identified in the food: 



Bayberry {Myrica carolinensis). Magnolia {Magnolia foetida) . 



Poison ivy {Rhus radicans). Pine {Pinus sp.). 



Summary. — From this brief review of the food of the red-cockaded 

 woodpecker it is evident that it does little if any damage by eating 

 products of husbandry, and that it does good work in the forest by 

 devouring wood-boring larvae. No doubt it aids in distributing the 

 seeds of the pines upon which it feeds. 



NTJTTALL WOODPECKER. 



{Dry abates nuttalli.) 



This bird is much like the downy in its quiet demeanor, its lack 

 of fear of man, and its unobtrusive industry in searching for food. 

 It is only a trifle larger than the downy, and its foraging and nesting 



