WOODPECKER FAMILY. 93 
Of all the woodpeckers the California has made most impression on 
nonscientific observers, owing to its peculiar habit of drilling holes 
into the trunks and branches of dead trees or into the bark of living 
ones, in each of which it stores an acorn. Wherever the bird is abun- 
dant every dead trunk or large branch is punctured with holes, fre- 
quently less than an inch apart. So zealous is it in this work that 
when trees are not available it often drills holes in cornices, church 
spires, telegraph and telephone poles, and fence posts. The wood- 
pecker does not ‘get the benefit of all its hoarded acorns by any 
means, for jays, rats, mice, and squirrels have learned where they can 
obtain food in winter, and are not backward in helping themselves 
to the woodpecker’s stores. As this robbery of his larder is resented 
by the owner, it leads to endless quarrels. 
For the laboratory investigation of the food of the California wood- 
pecker 75 stomachs were available. They were taken in every month 
except February, April, and May, the greater number in June and July, 
when the bird’s chances to do mischief are greatest. The food con- 
sists of 22.43 percent of animal matter to 77.57 percent of vegetable. 
This is the highest percentage of végetable matter yet found in the 
stomach of any woodpecker, though the red-bellied (Centurus caro- 
linus) comes very close to it. 
Animal food.—Beetles constitute the smallest item of the animal 
food. They amount to less than 3 percent, and are distributed among 
several families. The only month in which they are at all prominent 
is July, when they reach nearly 15 percent. No wood-boring larvee 
were found. This would seem to indicate that the bird uses its 
chisel-shaped bill solely for the purpose of boring holes in which to 
store acorns, instead of excavating for insects. 
Ants amount to 8.21 percent of the food. In one stomach taken 
in March they constitute 50 percent of the contents, but in no other 
do they reach 11 percent. The specific name of this bird, formicivorus, 
ant-eating, is not well chosen, for ants do not form a large part 
of its diet as compared with several other woodpeckers. Other 
Hymenoptera amount to 6.88 percent. More than half of these were 
in stomachs taken in August, when they aggregate 33 percent. 
A few bugs, flies, and grasshoppers, with fragments of caterpillars, 
make up the remainder of the animal food, 4.52 percent. One stom- 
ach contained a few black olive scales. 
Vegetable food.—Grain, fruit, and mast constitute nearly the whole 
of the vegetable food. One stomach taken in January contained 
nothing but corn, and another in December contained a few corn 
hulls. This is the whole of the grain record, and is of no economic 
interest. The average for the year but slightly exceeds 1 percent. 
Fruit amounts to a little more than 24 percent, and was found in nearly 
every month in which stomachs were taken. Most of it was evidently 
