NOTES ON THE FOOD OF BIRDS 
45 
New Mexico, but it is essentially a bird of southern Arizona 
and western Mexico. Mr. H. W. Henshaw reports that 
the birds observed by him in Arizona, “when in pursuit of 
food, almost always alighted near the base of the trees, 
gradually ascending and making their way along the smaller 
limbs and even out among the foliage, appearing to prefer to 
secure their food by a careful search rather than by the hard 
labor of cutting into the wood.” 
Alpine Three=toed Woodpecker 
This is a northern bird, which, however, has been found 
in the region about Taos, New Mexico. I have no special 
information regarding its food, but there is no reason for 
considering it harmful. 
Red=Naped Sapsucker 
Tin s woodpecker, the Sphyrapicus vcirius nuchal is of Baird, 
was originally described from New Mexico specimens. “In 
the fruit-growing sections within its range in southwest 
Utah, for instance, it is said to do considerable damage to 
the orchards in the early spring and again in the fall, tapping 
the peach and apple trees for sap in the same manner as 
Sphyrapicus varius does in the east. Its principal food con¬ 
sists of small beetles, spiders, grasshoppers, ants and such 
larvae as are to be found under the loose bark of trees, as 
well as of wild berries of different kinds. ” [Captain Bendire] 
Mr. F. E. L. Beal says of the eastern sapsucker: “In lo¬ 
calities where the bird is abundant considerable harm may 
be done to apple trees, which appear to be pleasing to its 
taste.” 
In New Mexico complaints have been received of the 
depredations of this bird, and there can be little doubt that 
it is a cause of more or less serious injury. 
Williamson’s Sapsucker 
This, the Sphyrapicus thyroicleus of ornithologists, is fre¬ 
quently observed in New Mexico. The stomach of one shot 
by Mr. E. Atkins at Conocita, above Cleveland, N. M., was 
full of ants (Formica sp.). Others shot on the upper Sapello 
