8 
the Rocky Mountains. Ft is there replaced by the red-shatted flicker 
(C. cafer), which extends westward to the L’acific. The two species are 
as nearly identical in food habits as their environment will allow. The 
flickers, while genuine woodpeckers, differ somewhat in habits from the 
rest of the family, and are frequently seen upon the ground searching 
for food. Like the downy aud hairy woodpeckers, they eat wood-boring 
grubs and ants, but the number of ants eaten is much greater. Twoof 
the flickers’ stomachs examined were completely filled with ants, each 
stomach containing more than 3,000 individuals. These ants belonged 
to species which live in the ground, and it is these insects for which the 
flicker is searching when running about in the grass, although some 
grasshoppers are also taken. 
Tia. 6,—Flicker. 
‘Fhe red headed woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus) (tig. 4) 38 well 
known castof the Rocky Mountains, but is rather rare in New England. 
Unlike some of the other species, it prefers fence posts and telegraph 
poles to trees asa foraging ground, Its food therefore naturally dif- 
fers from that of the preceding species, and consists largely of adult 
beetles and wasps, which it frequently captures on the wing, after the 
fashion of flyeatchers. Grasshoppers also form an important part of 
the food. The redhead has a peculiar habit of selecting very larg® 
beetles, as shown by the presence of fragments of several of the largest 
species in the stomachs. Among the beetles were quite a number of 
predaceous ground beetles, and unfortunately some tiger beetles, which 
are useful insects. Theredhead has been nceused of robbing the nests 
