WOODPECKER FAMILY. 25 



RED-SHAFTED FLICKER. 



(Colaptes cafer collaris.) 



In food habits the nickers of California do not differ essentially 

 from their eastern relatives. They are usually abundant wherever 

 there are trees, and are frequenters of orchards, though they usually 

 choose higher trees for nesting sites. They are among the most ter- 

 restrial of the woodpeckers, and obtain a large part of their food on 

 the ground. 



For the investigation of the flicker's food 118 stomachs, taken in 

 all months except January and May, were available. In these 

 stomachs animal food amounts to 54 percent and vegetable to 46 

 percent. 



Animal food. — Beetles, in either adult or larval form, do not appear 

 to be favorite food with the flicker. They amount to 3 percent of 

 its diet, and are apparently eaten to a small extent in every month. 

 In August they amount to 8 percent, in November to 7, and in all 

 other months the percentage is small. They belong to 6 families, 

 all harmful except the predaceous ground beetles (Carabidse). These 

 occurred in 33 stomachs, but the percentage in each case was small, 

 and they seem to be taken only incidentally. Weevils were found in 

 4 stomachs, click beetles in one, darkling beetles in 6, rove beetles in 

 3, and Notoxus alamedx in one. 



Ants constitute the largest item of the flicker's food, and are eaten 

 in every month. They are the object of the bird's search on the 

 ground and in rotten logs and stumps. The average for the year is 

 45 percent, the same as was found in 230 stomachs of the eastern 

 flicker. The stomach and crop of one individual of the eastern form 

 taken in Texas was filled with over 5,000 small black ants (Cremasto- 

 gaster). Each of several California stomachs held more than 1,000 

 of these insects, and others but few less. In 10 stomachs taken in 

 June the average percentage of ants was 76; in 10 taken in July, it 

 was 87 percent. November was the month of least consumption, 

 when the average of 34 stomachs was 7 percent. Of the 118 stom- 

 achs, 78, or 66 percent of the whole, contained ants, and 14 held 

 nothing else, except a little rubbish in three, and in one a few seeds of 

 filaree (Erodium). Inasmuch as certain ants in California, in the 

 latter part of summer, make a business of harvesting seeds, probably 

 this particular woodpecker had picked up a few ants that were thus 

 employed. Hymenoptera other than ants are eaten by the flicker 

 only occasionally, and average less than 1 percent of the yearly food. 



Miscellaneous insects amount to nearly 5 percent. They consist 

 of common crickets, wood crickets, mole crickets, caterpillars, white 

 ants (Termes), spiders, and sow bugs (Oniscus). All of these suggest 



