Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1910-07-20

United States, and in the West are re-
placed by others OF similar habits. Several
species remain in the Northern states
| through the entire year, while others are
| more or less migratory.
| Farmers are prone to look upon wood
peckers with suspicion. When the birds
are seen scrambiing over fruit trees and
pecking holes in the bark, ii is concluded
that they are doing harm. Careful obser-
vers, however, have noticed that, except
ing q single species, these birds rarely
leave any conspicuous mark on healthy
tree except when ii is effected by wood
boring iarve, which are accurately located,
dislodged and devoured by the wood
pecker.
Two OF the best-known woodpeckers,
the hairy woodpecker and the downy
woodpecker, including their races, range
| over the greater part OF the United States.
They differ chiefly in sire, their colors be-
ing practically the same. The males. like
those OF many other woodpeckers, are dis
tipguished by q scarletpatch on the head.
An examination OF many s,omachs OF
these two birds shows that from two
thirds to three iourt hs of the food consists
~ nnsee'' o"' "0Vs'
"ee''es' oo'A saints a"1
sp'cuous' anu WIN '"en "'e as''
| many caterpiilars, mostly species that
burrow into trees. Next in Importance
are the ants that live in decaying wood, all
| - ~" A'e sA. ~ "A1
ea'e' ~ s.eAs
~ ~
n"u ''.'i afs' " - Wv
o"flo~ Vi sohe "oouoo'ef' 'nes e"ia'ss
'he noie' anu as .neif eoio"s 20 ai~Ass gu
'ne ,"efsa,e' so"''.'"s " go. ""as 'n'
""oA u"'a '"' "noie '.u'A Is no"es
oo'nou o'eo'e.' sne'o iasee's A's ""'
aeoees'o'e 70 o'nei o'ios' anu eouia pursue
'nef eAi'ef Vi ues''ue'i"" uaiioies'eo
"e'e no' ioi rug "oo"i"eSe's, "hose
peaNs anu 'o"sues sie enpee'Ais n.eea i"'
u'es'ne on. anu ae'ouf'ns 'neih' -
'hus efiaen' .ha' ~ooap~csers arc great
eonsersa'o's Oh forests. 10 them, more
'nAh ~ any o'ner agency We owe the
p''ee' 'a''on Vi 'iihuel i1oih destructive
ihsee's'
one Oh the larger "ooopeeAers iahnihaf
10 everyone IN the nteSer, or golden
winged "ooopecSer, "hieh IL generally
distributed throughout the United states
from the Atlantic coast the ROCKY noun
tains. Inc hieSers' whiie genuine wood
pecSers, dihef somewhat IN habits from
the rest OF the family, ana are frequently
seen searching for food upon the ground.
Like the downy and hairy woodpeckers,
they iced upon wood boring grabs and
ants, but the number OF ants eaten is much
greater than that eaten BY the other two
spccies. OF the niekers' stomachs ex-
amined, three were completely filed with
ants. Two OF these each contained more
than 5000 individuals, while the third
contained fully 5,eo. These ants belong
TO species which live In the ground. II is
these insects for which the flicker is
searching when II runs about in the grass,
although some grasshoppers also are then
taken.
The habit OF the flicker of pecking holes
in buildings sometimes greatly annoys his
human friends. This habit is particularly
noticeable in the California species. OBJ
servation has shown that the object OF the
work is to obtain shelter for the winter.
In the East most OF the fiickers are migra-
tory, and only few remain at the North
where a shelter is necessary. These
generally find safe retreat in the hollow
| tree in which they nested.
The red-headed woodpecker is well
known east of the Rocky mountains, but
| is rather rare in New England. Unlike
some OF the other species, it prefers fence
posts and telegraph poles to trees as a
foraging ground. Its food, therefore,
naturally differs from that OF the preceding
species, and consists largely OF adult
beetles and wasps, which it frequently
captures on the wing, after the fashion of
fycatchers. Grasshoppers also form an
important part Of the food. The redhead
! has a peculiar habit OF selecting very large
beetles, as shown by the presence OF frae-