No. 20.] THE BIRDS OF CONNECTICUT. 285 



than 24 per cent of all. Many of these belong to the family of 

 May-beetles, a few were the predaceous ground beetles, but by 

 far the greatest number were wood-boring larvae — a fact show- 

 ing that this little bird, while securing his dinner, is doing good 

 work for the forest. One-fifth of the animal food, or i6 per cent 

 of the total, consists of caterpillars, many of which apparently 

 are wood-boring species ; others are kinds that live on stems and 

 foliage. Among insects the most interesting are the bugs 

 (Hemiptera), which are represented in the stomachs by several 

 species, notably by plant lice (Aphides), which in several in- 

 stances were found in considerable quantities, amounting to 4 

 per cent of the whole food." (Beal, " Preliminary Report on the 

 Food of Woodpeckers.") 



In the vegetable food were found the seeds of different ber- 

 ries, including poison ivy. It thus becomes evident that these 

 little birds are not engaged in harming the trees, when we see 

 them pecking from limb to limb, but hunting for wood-boring 

 insects and the like. 



The great usefulness of the Downy Woodpecker has been 

 in recent years abundantly proved by more extended observa- 

 tions of the Biological Survey. The contents of 723 stomachs 

 consisted of 76.05 per cent of animal matter and only 23.95 P^i" 

 cent of vegetable. " The foregoing discussion of the Downy 

 Woodpecker shows it to be one of our most useful species. The 

 only complaint against the bird is on the score of disseminating 

 the poisonous species of Rhus. However, it is fortunate that 

 the bird can live on this food when it is difficult to procure any- 

 thing else. The insect food selected by the Downy is almost all 

 of species economically harmful." (Beal, " Food of the Wood- 

 peckers of the United States.") 



The food of the Hairy Woodpecker (Dryobates villosus 

 villosus) is much the same as that of the Downy, but the vegeta- 

 ble percentage is somewhat greater. 



The Flicker, or Yellow-hammer (Colaptes auratus luteus), 

 the largest of our common woodpeckers and the most abundant 

 near the coast in the fall, lives largely on ants, over 2,000 having 

 been found in each of two stomachs by Professor Beal. As ants 

 protect and help to spread plant lice of various species, their de- 

 struction by the Flicker is advantageous. Professor Beal found, 



