WOODPECKER FAMILY. 15 
amount of insect food in the stomachs of the six species discussed in 
the following pages is 62 percent of the whole contents. 
It is unfortunate that the most valuable species of our woodpeckers 
are not abundant. In many parts of the country the downy and hairy 
woodpeckers are quite rare and, what is worse, appear to be dimin- 
ishing in numbers. As they are among the most valuable of our 
species, it is worth while to inquire into the cause of their scarcity 
and if possible to devise efficient remedies. In most sections these 
birds can obtain an abundance of food, and as they are not perse- 
cuted, so far as known, the most probable cause for their scarcity 
would appear to be the lack of suitable nesting sites. This is es- 
pecially true in the northeastern part of the United States where the 
war waged upon the gipsy and brown-tail moths has led to the trim- 
ming of all dead trunks and limbs from forests and orchards, so that 
the woodpeckers, which as a rule dig new nesting holes every year, are 
left with no places in which to nest. In Germany, after much experi- 
mentation, it has been found possible to construct nesting boxes which 
the European woodpeckers freely use. There can be no reasonable 
doubt that a similar result can be attained in this country. Pending 
experiments and as a step in the right direction, it would be well for 
orchardists to leave the stubs of dead limbs on orchard trees as sites 
. for the nests of woodpeckers. While the woodpecker may use the 
nest it excavates only one season, the hole will be available for blue- 
birds, wrens, chickadees, and nuthatches in succeeding years. The 
experiment of inducing our woodpeckers, especially the downy and 
hairy, to build in artificially constructed nesting boxes is well worth 
patient and persistent experiment. 
HAIRY WOODPECKER. 
(Dryobates villosus harrisi and hyloscopus.) 
Two subspecies of the hairy woodpecker occur in California, and 
between them they occupy nearly the whole State at some time of the 
year. Their favorite haunts are open groves and orchards, and as for- 
ests disappear and fruit trees increase in number, they will probably 
more and more inhabit orchards. That the hairy woodpecker is far 
from abundant at present is unfortunate, for its food habits make it of 
great economic importance. Only 27 stomachs have been examined, 
but the dates of collection are well distributed. Seven is the greatest 
number taken in any one month (September), and none at all were 
obtained in March, May, August, and October. While this number 
is sufficient to afford a general idea of the kind of food the bird prefers, 
it does not furnish reliable data as to the relative proportions of the 
different constituents. 
