46 
NOTES ON THE FOOD OF BIRDS 
river had eaten ants and beetles. This bird lives mainly in 
the coniferous forests, and there is no reason to consider it 
injurious. Bend ire says: “It’s food seems to consist al¬ 
most exclusively of insects and their larvse, various species 
of lepidoptera, and an occasional grasshopper. ” Coues tells 
us, “It is strictly a Sphyropicus, with little extensible, brushy 
and obtuse tongue, and feeds on juices of trees, as well as in¬ 
sects and berries. ” 
• Red=headed Woodpecker 
This bird (Melanerpes erythrocephalus) has been observed 
by Mr. Chas. M. Barber at Hall's Peak, N. M., but it appears 
to be a rarity in New Mexico. Mr. Beal reports that it eats 
many beetles, apparently having a taste for those of large 
size. He also says: “The redhead has been accused of do¬ 
ing considerable damage to fruit and grain, and both charges 
are fairly well sustained. In northern New York Dr. Mer- 
riam has seen it peck into apples on the tree, and has several 
times seen it feed on choke-cherries.” 
t 
Californian Woodpecker 
Capt. Bendire says of this bird: “It is one of the most 
restless woodpeckers I know T of, and never appears to be at 
a loss for amusement or work of some kind, and no other bird 
belonging to this family could possibly be more industrious. 
During the spring and summer its food consists, to a great 
extent, of insects, including grasshoppers, ants, beetles and 
different species of flies, varied occasionally with fruit, such 
as cherries, which are carried off whole, apples, figs, and also 
berries and green corn; but acorns always form its principal 
food supply during the greater portion of the year, and 
large numbers are stored away by it in the thick bark of 
pines, as well as in dry and partly rotten limbs of oak and> 
other trees, also in telegraph poles and fence posts.” Capt. 
Bendire adds, however, that the habit of storing acorns 
seems to be confined to the birds found in California and 
south-western Oregon, arid that the somewhat smaller birds 
of Arizona and New' Mexico never seem to act in this manner. 
