WOODPECKER FAMILY. 19 



In the twelve hours during which the birds were watched, the 

 nestlings were fed 160 times, an average of 13§ times per hour; or 

 each of the 4 was fed more than three times per hour. The nest 

 was in a stub of a cherry tree in a mixed orchard, and apparently 

 all the foraging was done in the immediate vicinity, as food was 

 brought too often to have been carried any great distance; moreover, 

 the parent birds were frequently seen searching the trees. Both 

 parents took part in caring for the young, one often waiting patiently 

 near by while the other fed the nestlings. At first the parent birds 

 entered the nest chamber when they came with food, but later, as 

 the nestlings grew larger, they remained outside, thrusting their heads 

 in at the opening. The food nearly always appeared as a white mass 

 in the beak, which led to the suspicion that the young were being fed 

 with woolly aphids. The parent birds came from the direction of 

 a number of apple trees which were badly infested with this pest, and 

 the bark of the trees showed places from which the insects had been 

 recently taken. Thus it was practically certain that aphids were 

 being fed to the young woodpeckers. 



SUMMARY. 



From the foregoing account it is evident that the downy wood- 

 pecker is of great value to the horticulturist. Its food consists 

 largely of orchard pests, and its levies upon fruit are insignificant. 

 The orchardist should note that the downy makes its nest in a cham- 

 ber which it excavates in a partly rotten trunk or limb of moderate 

 size, frequently of an apple tree. Where such wood occurs in or 

 about the orchard, it should be left for the convenience of the wood- 

 pecker and his successors, the wrens and titmice. By so simple a 

 precaution as this the number of downies and of other useful birds 

 that build in holes may be materially increased in an orchard and 

 their services secured without cost at the very point where most 

 needed. When trimming dead limbs, it is necessary only to leave a 

 few inches of the stub, which is not unsightly, and which answers 

 all the purposes of the woodpecker. 



NUTTALL WOODPECKER. 



(Dryobates nuttalli.) 



The Nuttall woodpecker is well distributed over California west 

 of the Sierra Nevada, but is less abundant than the downy and not 

 quite so domestic. It is rather more fond of big oaks and other 

 forest trees than of the orchard, but is often found on fruit trees. 



The following analysis of its food is based upon the examination of 

 the contents of 46 stomachs, taken in various parts of the State and 

 in every month except May. The first division of the food into 



