ECONOMIC RELATIONS OF OUR BIRDS. 
573 
144. Hylotomus pileatus (Linn.), Bd. PILEATEB WOODPECKER. 
Group I. Class b. 
This gigantic Woodpecker is a common resident in the pineries, wliere it 
frequents especially the windfall tracts abounding in old dead trees. In the 
character of its food it appears to be most closely allied to the Yellow-bellied 
Woodpecker, seldom drilling into hard wood for wood-borers. Some of its chisel¬ 
ings, however, into soft decaying timber for ants, and doubtless grubs, are often 
on a gigantic scale, furrows six inches wide and deep and twelve feet in length 
being commonly made by it in standing stubs. 
Food: A specimen taken on the Flambeau river had its stomach distended 
with large black ants, small beetles, and some vegetable material. 
Insects and larvae which it takes from decaying pines and other trees. Said 
also to eat corn, but this is doubtful (Wilson). Insects which it takes from be¬ 
neath the bark of trees; also corn, chestnuts, acorns, and fruits (De Kay). 
Borers, black ants, beech-nuts and Indian corn (Samuels). 
145. Pious villosus, Linn. HAIRY WOODPECKER. Group I. Class b. 
This species is a common resident, breeding, as yet, mostly in woodlands and 
forests. Early in the spring and after the breeding season, it pays frequent 
visits to orchards, nurseries and villages, where, in the southern portion of the 
state, it performs a work in which but one other bird, the Downy Woodpecker, 
takes part, at least to any notable extent. This work is that of destroying wood¬ 
boring larvae, and these pests furnish it nearly one-half of its food both winter 
and summer. Another trait which gives special importance to its services is 
that of hammering on the loose and shaggy bark of trees for the purpose of 
startling the moths and other insects that have hidden beneath it; when they 
take wing, it pursues to their next place of lighting and captures them. I have 
seen this bird repeatedly capture moths in this way. Practically, therefore, it, 
and doubtless all of the Woodpeckers, to some extent, perform in part the work 
of a nocturnal fly-catcher. 
It has been known to nest in orchards and in fence posts, but it seems destined 
to become less and less numerous as its natural bi'eeding places are destroyed. 
It enjoys, however, so wide a range in the variety of its food, that, could its 
breeding habits be changed, it would probably be able to maintain an ample 
abundance when properly protected. 
Food: Of twenty-one specimens examined, eleven had eaten fifty-two wood¬ 
boring larvae; five, thirteen geometrid caterpillars; ten, one hundred and five 
ants; six, ten beetles; two, two cockroaches; two, nine ootheca of cockroaches; 
two, two moths; one, a small snail; one, green corn; one, a wild cherry; and 
one, red elder berries. In the stomach of one of these was a little woody fiber, 
but this was probably swallowed unintentionally. One of the above birds had 
in its stomach eleven wood-boring larvae (Lamides?) and twelve geometers; 
another, thirteen larvae of long-horn beetles and four cockroach ootheca; another, 
nine wood-boring larvae; and two others together had tliree wood-boring larvie, 
and nine larvae not coleopterous. 
The apple-borer and other larvae, insects and their eggs (Wilson). Insects and 
their larvae, which infest trees (De Kay). Eggs and larvae of injurious insects 
which burrow in the wood of orchard and forest trees; it also eats small fruits 
and berries, and some assert that it eats the buds and blossoms of trees (Samuels). 
One specimen had in its stomach hymenoptera (Forbes). Cecropia cocoons punc¬ 
tured by them (Am. Nat., Vol. XV, p. 241, F. M. Webster). 
