The Lewis Woodpecker 
understand how the abdominal plumage might have been teased to rags 
through constant friction with rough bark; but this lazy Jack-of-all- 
trades, who is more flycatcher than true woodpecker, how did he get 
his under-plumage so fearfully mussed? 
For all the Black Woodpecker 
keeps largely to the tops of trees, 
it is not averse to ground-meats, 
and where unmolested will descend 
to feed with Cousin Flicker upon 
crickets, geotic beetles, or fallen 
acorns. Grasshoppers are a favorite 
food, and during the season of their 
greatest abundance the bird requires 
little else. Service berries are sam¬ 
pled in season, wild strawberries are 
not often neglected, and the bird 
has been known to filch a cherry 
now and then. Indeed, there has 
been some just complaint, in fruit¬ 
growing sections of northern and 
Sierran foothills, of depredations 
committed by these versatile birds 
upon peach and apple orchards. They 
do not appear to molest citrus fruits, 
but pomegranates, quinces, and, oc¬ 
casionally, persimmons have suffered 
in the South. Save for such orchards 
as lie within the immediate breeding 
range of lewisi, the danger is slight; 
but in the worst cases a little “dis¬ 
cipline” is undoubtedly justifiable. 
The cherished diet of the Lewis 
Woodpecker is, however, the acorn. 
No one begrudges to Asyndesmus 
this abundant and humanly useless 
food, except that Rockefeller of Taken in San Luis Obisfo County Photo by the Author 
acorndom, the California Wood- on lookout 
pecker. I f Balanosphyra had his way, 
every drop of the oaken product would be stored up in Standard tanks 
(or grills, or cultures, or whatever you choose to call them), and kept 
there under lock and key till worm’s-day. A. lewisi and his crowd are 
“Independent,” however. They claim the right to help themselves to 
IO33 
