266 REPORT OF THE FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 



growth are likely to be more favorable. Of all the seeds thus distributed, some are 

 certain to find conditions under which they can thrive, while, if they fell directly 

 to the ground from the branch where they grew, few or none would ever survive. 



Vegetable Food of the Woodpeckers. 



The vegetable portion of the food of the downy and hairy woodpeckers consists 

 largely of small fruits of trees or shrubs, the seeds of which pass through the 

 bird or are disgorged uninjured and ready to germinate and grow. The most 

 important seeds found in the stomachs of these species are those of dogwood 

 (Cornus), Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus), June or service berries (Amelanchier), 

 hornbeam (Ostrya), sour gum (Nyssa), and wild, black cherries (Prunus). Some 

 of these only rise to the dignity of shrubs, but still have their uses in the forest, 

 while others attain to the size of trees and produce useful timber. Many of the 

 wild berry-bearing shrubs are of no mean importance in the economy of nature. 

 They furnish food for birds, and in many cases for man also. Of these the rubus 

 fruits (blackberries and raspberries) are good examples. The berries are eaten freely 

 by the woodpeckers, which scatter the seeds far and wide, to germinate and 

 produce thick masses of brambles that act as covers to young forest growth, 

 as well as furnish berries. 



The two species of three-toed woodpeckers eat practically no vegetable food, 

 or at most none which has any bearing upon the welfare of the forest. 



The vegetable food of the nicker is much more extensive in variety and quantity 

 than that of the downy and hairy. It eats many more berries, such as elder- 

 berries, huckleberries, spiceberries, mulberries, hackberries, and, in addition to the 

 tree seeds eaten by the foregoing species, it eats juniper berries (Jtiniperus 

 virginiana). This last forms a very favorite winter food for many species of 

 birds, and in the Middle and Southern States this tree is to be seen growing 

 in rows along every fence and by the roadsides, where the seeds have been 

 dropped by the birds when perched upon the fence. 



The redheaded woodpecker eats about the same vegetable matter as the preced- 

 ing, but when there is a crop of beechnuts the bird, instead of migrating, remains 

 north all winter and lives upon them. Dr. C. Hart Merriam has given much 

 testimony upon this point. He states that in northern New York, where it is one 

 of the commonest woodpeckers, it subsists almost exclusively on beechnuts during 

 the fall and winter, even picking the green nuts before they are ripe and while the 

 trees are still covered with leaves. He has shown that these woodpeckers 



