of wanton shooting. They are given full legal protection almost
everywhere, and citizens should see that the law is obeyed. The bird is
far too useful and attractive to be persecuted.
THE WOODPECKERS.
[Illustration: Fig. 20.—Hairy woodpecker. Length, about 9 inches.]
Five or six species of woodpeckers are familiarly known throughout
eastern United States, and in the West are replaced 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 woodpeckers with suspicion. When the
birds are seen scrambling over fruit trees and pecking holes in the
bark, it is concluded that they must be doing harm. Careful observers,
however, have noticed that, excepting a single species, these birds
rarely leave any conspicuous mark on a healthy tree, except when it is
affected by wood-boring larvæ, which are accurately located, dislodged,
and devoured by the woodpecker.
Two of the best-known woodpeckers, the hairy woodpecker[55] (fig.
20) and the downy woodpecker,[56] including their races, range over
the greater part of the United States. They differ chiefly in size,
their colors being practically the same. The males, like those of
many other woodpeckers, are distinguished by a scarlet patch on the
head. An examination of many stomachs of these two species shows that
from two-thirds to three-fourths of the food consists of insects,
chiefly noxious kinds. Wood-boring beetles, both adults and larvæ are
conspicuous, and with them are associated many caterpillars, mostly
species that burrow into trees. Next in importance are the ants that
live in decaying wood, all of which are sought by woodpeckers and eaten
in great quantities. Many ants are particularly harmful to timber,
for if they find a small spot of decay in the vacant burrow of a
wood borer, they enlarge the hole, and, as their colony is always on
the increase, continue to eat away the wood until the whole trunk is
honeycombed. Moreover, they are not accessible to birds generally, and
could pursue their career of destruction unmolested were it not that
the woodpeckers, with beaks and tongues especially fitted for such
work, dig out and devour them. It is thus evident that woodpeckers are
great conservators of forests. To them more than to any other agency we
owe the preservation of timber from hordes of destructive insects.
[55] _Dryobates villosus._
[56] _Dryobates pubescens._
[Illustration: Fig. 21.—Flicker. Length, about 12½ inches. ]
One of the larger woodpeckers familiar to everyone is the flicker, or
golden-winged woodpecker[57] (fig. 21), which is generally distributed
throughout the United States from the Atlantic coast to the Rocky
Mountains. There it is replaced by the red-shafted flicker,[58]
which extends westward to the Pacific. The two species are as nearly
identical in food habits as their respective environments will allow.
The flickers, while genuine woodpeckers, differ somewhat in habits
from the rest of the family, and are frequently seen searching for
food upon the ground. Like the downy and hairy woodpeckers, they feed
upon wood-boring grubs and ants, but the number of ants eaten is much
greater than that eaten by the other two species. Of the flickers’
stomachs examined, three were completely filled with ants. Two of these
contained more than 3,000 individuals each, while the third contained
fully 5,000. These ants belong to species which live in the ground.
It is these insects for which the flicker searches when it runs about
in the grass, although some grasshoppers also are then taken. The
flicker’s habit of pecking holes in buildings sometimes greatly annoys
his human friends, and it is particularly noticeable in the California
species. Observation has shown that the object of the work is to obtain
shelter for the winter. In the East most of the flickers are migratory,
and only a few remain North where shelter is necessary. These generally
find a safe retreat in the hollow tree in which they nested. In
California, however, where the birds do not migrate, trees are not so
abundant as in the East, and consequently buildings are brought into
requisition, and in them holes are drilled, usually under the eaves,
where snug nights’ lodgings are found. Often a dozen holes may be seen
in one building. Barns or other outbuildings are usually selected,
though churches sometimes have been used.
[57] _Colaptes auratus._
[58] _Colaptes cafer collaris._
[Illustration: Fig. 22.—Red-headed woodpecker. Length, about 9½ inches.]
The red-headed woodpecker[59] (fig. 22), 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
flycatchers. Grasshoppers also form an important part of the food.
Among the beetles are a number of predacious ground species and some
tiger beetles, which are useful insects. The red-head has been accused
of robbing nests of other birds, and of pecking out the brains of
young birds and poultry; but as the stomachs showed little evidence to
substantiate this charge, the habit probably is exceptional.
[59] _Melanerpes erythrocephalus._
The vegetable food of woodpeckers is varied, but consists largely of
small fruits and berries. The downy and hairy woodpeckers eat such
fruits as dogwood and Virginia creeper and seeds of poison ivy, sumac,
and a few other shrubs. The flicker also eats a great many small fruits
and the seeds of a considerable number of shrubs and weeds. None of
the three species is much given to eating cultivated fruits or crops.
The red-head has been accused of eating the larger kinds of fruit, as
apples, and also of taking considerable corn. Stomach examinations show
that to some extent these charges are substantiated, but that the habit
is not prevalent enough to cause much damage. The bird is fond of mast,
especially beechnuts, and when these nuts are plentiful it remains
north all winter.
Woodpeckers apparently are the only agents which can successfully cope
with certain insect enemies of the forest, and, to some extent, with
those of fruit trees also. For this reason, if for no other, they
should be protected in every possible way.
THE CUCKOOS.
Two species of cuckoos are common in the United States east of
the Great Plains, the yellow-billed cuckoo[60] (fig. 23) and the
black-billed cuckoo,[61] and in the West a relative of the yellow-bill,
the California cuckoo,[62] ranges from Colorado and Texas to the
Pacific coast. While the two species are quite distinct, the food
habits of the yellow-bill and the black-bill do not greatly differ and
their economic status is practically the same.
[60] _Coccyzus americanus._
[61] _Coccyzus erythropthalmus._
[62] _Coccyzus americanus occidentalis._
[Illustration: Fig. 23.—Yellow-billed cuckoo. Length, about 12 inches.]
Examination of 155 stomachs has shown that these species are much given
to eating caterpillars, and, unlike most birds, do not reject those
covered with hair. In fact, cuckoos eat so many hairy caterpillars that
the hairs pierce the inner lining of the stomach and remain there, so
that when the stomach is opened it appears to be lined with a thin
coating of fur.
An examination of the stomachs of 46 black-billed cuckoos, taken during
the summer months, showed the remains of 906 caterpillars, 44 beetles,
96 grasshoppers, 100 sawflies, 30 stinkbugs, and 15 spiders. In all
probability more individuals than these were represented, but their
remains were too badly broken for recognition. Most of the caterpillars
were hairy, and many of them belong to a genus that lives in colonies
and feeds on the leaves of trees, including the apple tree. One stomach
was filled with larvæ of a caterpillar belonging to the same genus
as the tent caterpillar, and possibly to that species. Other larvæ
were those of large moths, for which the bird seems to have a special
fondness. The beetles were for the most part click beetles and weevils,
including a few May beetles. The sawflies were contained in two
stomachs, one of which held no less than 60 in the larval stage.
Of the yellow-billed cuckoo, 109 stomachs (collected from May to
October) were examined. They contained 1,865 caterpillars, 93 beetles,
242 grasshoppers, 37 sawflies, 69 bugs, 6 flies, and 86 spiders. As in
the case of the black-billed cuckoo, most of the caterpillars belonged
to hairy species and many of them were of large size. One stomach
contained 250 American tent caterpillars; another 217 fall webworms.
The beetles were distributed among several families, all more or
less harmful to agriculture. In the same stomach which contained the
tent caterpillars were 2 Colorado potato beetles; in another were 3
goldsmith beetles, and remains of several other large beetles. Besides
the ordinary grasshoppers were several katydids and tree crickets. The
sawflies were in the larval stage, in which they resemble caterpillars
so closely that they are commonly called false caterpillars by
entomologists. The bugs consisted of stinkbugs and cicadas, or dog-day
harvest flies, with the single exception of one wheel bug, which was
the only useful insect eaten.
WASHINGTON : GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1915
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Transcriber Note
Illustrations moved to prevent splitting paragraphs.