The California Woodpecker 
The name formicivorns, ant-eating, is a thorough misnomer for this 
bird. In common with all other woodpeckers it does eat ants, but these 
form only eight per cent of its food, as against fifty per cent for the 
Flicker (Colaptes cafer), and eighty-five per cent for the Williamson 
Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus thyroideus ). This species does not secure much, if 
any, of its food by drilling, and it does not go after the Cerambycid 
larvae at all. In addition to bugs, flies, and miscellaneous hymenoptera, 
taken a-wing, it appropriates a caterpillar or a beetle or an olive scale 
now and then, or lies in 
wait to pick up ants as 
they emerge from their 
xylophagous tunnellings. 
A regrettable taste for 
fruit is occasionally cul¬ 
tivated, but this has not 
reached economic pro¬ 
portions, save in the case 
of almonds. Almond 
orchards thrive best at 
a very considerable dis¬ 
tance from oak groves— 
otherwise, the “lead us 
not into temptation” 
petition were a vain 
thing (or shall we pray, 
“forgive us our debts as 
we forgive our debtors,” 
and then seduce the 
birds?) 
Now, having consci¬ 
entiously despatched all 
other matters, we pause 
to remark, what is per¬ 
fectly well known to 
every Californian, that 
the California Wood¬ 
pecker is the original 
artist in inlaid bindings. 
From time immemorial 
this bird has riddled the 
bark of certain forest 
trees and stuffed the 
Taken in the San Jacinto Mis. 
Photo by W. M. Pierce 
A THOROUGH JOB 
102 7 
