2994 YEARBOOK OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
beetle larvee and more caterpillars, and thus renders quite as good 
service in the orchard. In winter, birds of both these species are more 
pressed for food than in summer, and may 
be seen busily searching the crevices in the. 
bark, where they find hibernating insects 
and insects’ eggs. By devouring these 
they destroy many enemies that would 
f : have attacked the trees at the approach of 
aD yk” AY warm weather. 
Fuickrer.—tThe flicker ( Colaptes auratus, 
fig. 37), another member of the woodpecker 
family, is well known to most orchardists 
: a and farmers. It is larger than either the 
Fie, saul aaa (Dry downy or the hairy woodpecker, and differs 
; somewhat from them in its food habits. It 
eats fewer beetles and caterpillars, but devours an enormous number 
of ants. Two stomachs were examined, each of which contained more 
than 3,000 ants, and ina third were 5,000, 
of avery minute species. Not all of these 
ants, however, are obtained from trees; 
many are species that burrow in the earth, 
for the flicker is more terrestrial than 
most of the other woodpeckers, and takes 
much of its food from the ground. 
YELLOW-BELLIED WOODPECKER. —On 
the other hand, some harm to fruit trees 
is to be charged against this family, though 
there is much popular misapprehension in 
this regard. The smaller species have been called sapsuckers, from 
the supposition that they puncture holes in the bark of trees in order 
to get the sap and soft inner bark. The charge 
is well grounded, but only one species, so far 
as known, causes any appreciable harm through 
the practice. This is the yellow-bellied wood- 
pecker (Sphyrupfcus varius, fig. 38), whose 
summer range is confined to Canada, the 
northern portions of the United States, and 
the Allegheny Mountains, and whose winter 
residence is in the Southern States. This bird 
ix injurious to certain trees, at times removing 
the outer bark over a considerable area, and 
at others pecking numerous holes very close 
together, in cach case practically girdling the 
tree. Ax the sup collects in the pits thus formed, the bird drinks it, and 
also catches the insects that are attracted to the pits by the sweetness 
. R 
Fig. 37.—Flicker (Colaptes auratus). 
“ 
Fig, 38.—Yellow-bellied wood- 
pecker (Sphyrapicus varius). 
