50 FOOD OF WOODPECKERS OF UNITED STATES. 



and a species of wasp, or Polistes, acorns, seeds, and no bark. A 

 third, shot in May, was filled with seeds, pieces of bark, and insects, 

 among which was an entire Lachnosterna, or Maybug." 1 



For the investigation of the food of the red-bellied woodpecker 271 

 stomachs were available. They were collected in 17 States and 

 Ontario, and represent every month in the year, though but few were 

 taken in June and July. In the first analysis the food was found to 

 consist of 30.94 per cent animal matter to 69.06 of vegetable. The 

 former consists of insects and spiders, with a few tree frogs and lizards, 

 while the latter may be considered as made up of grain, fruit, and 

 mast. 



Animal food. — Predatory beetles (Carabidae) amount to 0.86 per 

 cent, and consist of some of the larger genera like Pasimachus and 

 Calosoma. They were probably found on the bark of trees. Other 

 beetles, all more or less harmful, aggregate 9.32 per cent of the food. 

 Six species of weevils or snout-beetles were identified, and 14 indi- 

 viduals were taken from one stomach. There were also quite a 

 number of wood-boring larvae, which the birds must have dug out 

 from the wood, thus benefiting the forest. Beetles form a pretty 

 steady article of diet, and starting with 3.62 per cent in Januar}^ they 

 increase with fair regularity to May, when they attain the maximum 

 of 27.57 per cent, from which they slowly decrease to 1 per cent in 

 December. 



Ants are eaten to the extent of 6.45 per cent of the food and are 

 a fairly constant article of diet. The most are eaten during the 

 warmer months, though none were found in the two stomachs taken 

 in June, which is probably accidental. Evidently this bird does not 

 dig all of the ants it eats from decaying wood, like the downy wood- 

 pecker, but, like the flickers, collects them from the ground and the 

 bark of trees. Other Hymenoptera amount to 1.45 per cent, and 

 while these insects are known to be great lovers of warmth and sun- 

 shine, most of them are eaten in fall and spring, and many even in 

 winter, when they are usually less numerous. Orthoptera (grass- 

 hoppers, crickets, etc.) constitute 5.83 per cent of the food. They 

 were found in 51 stomachs — grasshoppers in 27, eggs of cockroaches 

 in 15, crickets in 8, and a mantis (devil's rear-horse) in 1. Two 

 stomachs contained the eggs of grasshoppers, which indicates that 

 this bird occasionally forages on the ground. Cockroaches were 

 represented entirely by their egg cases (ootheca). These insects 

 extrude their eggs, not singly like most other creatures, but packed 

 together in a case somewhat like the clip of cartridges used for some 

 modern breech-loading rifles. These cases are probably found by birds 

 in crevices of the bark of trees. Orthoptera are eaten throughout the 



i United States Agrio. Kept, for 1865, p. 38, 1866. 



