82 OUR WINTER BIRDS IN THEIR FOOT RELATIONS. 
this is a misnomer, as that name is 
only properly applied to the yellow- 
bellied woodpecker. Although the 
downy species bores holes in the 
bark of trees it does not revisit them 
to suck the sap according to the 
habit of the last-named bird, and the 
holes seem, not usually, to injure the 
tree. Seventeen Wisconsin speci- 
mens examined to determine their 
food, had eaten forty insect larvae, 
including twenty wood-boring grubs, 
three caterpillars, seven ants, four 
beetles, a chrysalid, one hundred and 
ten small bugs, and a spider, together 
with a few acorns and small seeds, 
and a little woody fibre apparently 
taken by accident along with the 
grubs. Audubon states that in au- 
tumn these birds eat poke-berries 
and wild grapes. 
The ruffed grouse or ‘ ‘ partridge ’ ’ 
is one of the most interesting of the 
birds that remain with us through- 
out the winter. Of its general food 
habits Dr. A. K. Fisher says: “The 
ruffed grouse is very fond of grass- 
hoppers and crickets as an article of 
diet, and when these insects are 
abundant it is rare to find a stomach 
or crop that does not contain their 
remains. One specimen, shot late 
in October, had the crop and stom- 
ach distended with the larvae of 
Edema albifrons , a caterpillar which 
feeds extensively on the leaves of the 
oak. Beechnuts, chestnuts, and 
acorns, are also common articles of 
food. Among berries, early in the 
season, the blackberries, blueberries, 
raspberries, and elderberries are eaten 
with relish, while later in the year the 
wintergreen and partridge berry, with 
their foliage, sumach berries (includ- 
ing those of the poisonous species), 
cranberries, black alder, dogwood, 
nannyberries, and wild grapes form 
their chief diet. In the fall the foli- 
age of plants often forms a large part 
of their food, that of clover, straw- 
berry, buttercup, wintergreen, and 
partridge-berry predominating. In 
the winter these birds feed on the 
buds of trees, preferring those of 
the apple tree, iron- wood, black and 
white birch, and poplar.” 
A Family of Ruffed Grouse. 
Photographed by F. />. Webster. 
