18 FOOD OF WOODPECKERS OF UNITED STATES. 



matter of food, for they all forage over the bark of the trunks and 

 branches of trees and eat practically the same things. 



The following are samples of testimony as to the good work of the 

 downy : 



The downy woodpecker, which is so common in Montana and which is so often 

 seen in our orchards, is the fruit-grower's friend. Besides picking up miscellaneous 

 pests it locates burrows of this borer [flat-headed apple-tree borer, Chrysobothris femo- 

 rata] and extracts them in considerable numbers. In the older orchards of Montana 

 scarcely a tree can be found that does not bear the marks of woodpeckers, a large 

 proportion of which are made by this species. 1 



Mr. E. Dwight Sanderson, in speaking of the work of the downy 

 woodpecker, says: 



He is the arch enemy of the codling moth and were it not for his good offices in 

 destroying the larvae in the winter your apple crop might frequently be a failure. 2 



Prof. Samuel Aughey examined four stomachs of the downy wood- 

 pecker in Nebraska, all of which contained grasshoppers. 



The late Dr. Townend Glover, entomologist of the Department of 

 Agriculture, states that the stomach of a downy woodpecker shot 

 in February "was filled with black ants." He states further: 



On one occasion a downy woodpecker was observed by myself making a number 

 of small, rough-edged perforations in the bark of a young ash tree, and upon examin- 

 ing the tree when the bird had flown it was found that wherever the bark had been 

 injured the young larvae of a wood-eating beetle had been snugly coiled underneath, 

 and had been destroyed by the bird. 3 



In the laboratory investigation of the food of the downy wood- 

 pecker 723 stomachs were examined. They were collected in 33 

 States, the District of Columbia, and Canada. They are quite regu- 

 larly distributed over the 12 months of the } 7 ear, and probably repre- 

 sent fairly the average annual food. This is made up of 76.05 per 

 cent of animal matter to 23.95 per cent of vegetable. 



Animal food. — Beetles taken collectively amount to 21.55 per cent, 

 and are the largest item of the food. Of these, a little less than 14 

 per cent are wood-boring larvae, principally cerambycids, with some 

 buprestids. They were found in 289 stomachs, or about 40 per cent 

 of all, and 10 contained no other food. This is only about half the 

 amount found in the stomachs of the hairy woodpecker, and shows 

 that the downy pecks wood much less than the hairy. These larvae 

 are eaten at all times of the year, though the most are taken in the 

 cooler months. In November they constitute 20 per cent of the 

 food, which is the maximum, though in the other fall months and 

 in the winter and spring months they do not fall far below. In June 

 the minimum of 4.5 per cent was eaten. The economic value of the 

 destruction of these larvae is very great. 



i Cooley, R. A-, Bull. 51, Montana Agric. Exper. Sta., p. 226, 1903. 



2 Bull. 131, New Hampshire Agric. Exper. Sta, p. 18, 1907. 



3 U. S. Commissioner of Agric, Rept. for 1865, pp. 37-38, 1866. 



