LEWIS WOODPECKER. 45 



Summary. — The foregoing discussion shows that the food of the 

 California woodpecker is not of much economic importance. On the 

 other hand, the bird can not be charged with destroying useful insects 

 or many products of husbandry. While it eats considerable fruit, 

 especially almonds, in fact twice as much as the linnet, it does not 

 habitually infest orchards, and in most localities is not numerous 

 enough to be a serious nuisance. The few insects which it takes 

 are nearly all of harmful species, while 'the acorns which make up 

 the bulk of its diet may be considered of little yalue. The trees 

 used for storehouses are usually either dead or partly so, and when 

 aliye are little harmed by the punctures, which do not usually go 

 through the bark. When, howeyer, holes are made in buildings, 

 telegraph or telephone poles, or fences, they are a real injury, and it is 

 fortunate that such cases are local and exceptional. From the 

 esthetic point of view, howeyer, a strong plea for the bird's protec- 

 tion may be made. It is an interesting and picturesque species, 

 and where it does not make itself conspicuous by reason of the 

 damage it does it may well be allowed to live. 1 



LEWIS WOODPECKER. 



(Asyndesmus lewisi.) 



The Lewis woodpecker (PI. V) is irregularly distributed over that 

 part of the United States west of the eastern slope of the Rocky 

 Mountains, north to southwestern Canada, and south to northern 

 Mexico. In many localities within its range it is rare or absent, while 

 very abundant in others. It is by nature somewhat shy, not greatly 

 addicted to visiting orchards and cultivated areas. 



In Oregon and Washington complaint has been made that the bird 

 does some damage to apples. Only twice was the writer able to find 

 cases of serious damage. An orchard situated close to a river, on the 

 far side of which was a large area of wild land, was so persistently 

 visited by Lewis woodpeckers, when the early apples were ripening, 

 that the pickers were obliged to shoot the birds. One evening a num- 

 ber of boxes filled ready for market were left in the orchard. In the 

 morning it was found that the woodpeckers had pulled out the papers 

 and pecked the fruit so that it was necessary to open and repack 

 several boxes. In the other case the orchard was in the foothills and 

 almost completely surrounded by evergreen forests, from which the 

 birds came and to which they retreated when alarmed. 



Dr. Merriam, speaking of Fall River Valley, California, says of 

 this bird: " Common everywhere and eating apples in several of the 

 orchards . ' ' Also at Fort Jones : ' ' Evidently eating apples . ' ' 



1 Besides the California form, bairdi, treated of in these pages, there is at least one other, aculeata, within 

 the limits of the United States. Its range is in the southern Rocky Mountains from central western Texas 

 to northern Arizona. No stomachs of this subspecies have been received, but probably its food habits 

 do not differ from those of the other form. 



