. Bulletin - Biological Survey. Zoology, Economic. FLICKER. 17 terrestrial of all the woodpeckers, in spite of his high-perching and high-nesting proclivities, and may often be seen walking about in the grass like a meadow lark. In the investigation of its food liabits 230 stomachs were examined, taken in every month of the year, although January and February have but 1 each. They were collected in 22 States, the District of Columbia, and the ]^forthwest Territory, and are fairly well distributed over the region east of the Eocky Mountains. They contained 56 x>er cent of animal matter, 39 p
. Bulletin - Biological Survey. Zoology, Economic. FLICKER. 17 terrestrial of all the woodpeckers, in spite of his high-perching and high-nesting proclivities, and may often be seen walking about in the grass like a meadow lark. In the investigation of its food liabits 230 stomachs were examined, taken in every month of the year, although January and February have but 1 each. They were collected in 22 States, the District of Columbia, and the ]^forthwest Territory, and are fairly well distributed over the region east of the Eocky Mountains. They contained 56 x>er cent of animal matter, 39 percent of vegetable, and 5 j)ercent of min- eral. It will be seen that the quantity of animal or insect material is less than in either of the preceding species, and the mineral matter somewhat greater. The following orders of insects were represented:. l^t^ Fig. 2.—rhcker. Ants {Hymenoptera), beetles {Coleoptera), bugs {ffemiptera), grasshop- pers and crickets (Orf/^o/)tem), caterpillars (Lepidoptera), Mayflies {Ephe- merida) and white ants {Isoptera). Spiders and myriapods also were pres- ent. An inspection of this iusect matter shows the rather remarkable fact that more than three-fourths of it, or 43 percent of the whole food, consists of ants. If the mineral matter is thrown out as not being prop- erly food, we find that more than 45 percent of the Flicker's food for the year consists of ants. Among the stomachs examined several contained nothing but ants. In two of these the actual number of ants present in each stomach exceeded 3,000. These were mostly small species that live in burrows in the earth, so that it is evident that when Flickers are seen upon the ground they are usually in search of 18269—No. 7 2. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original United States. Bureau of Biological Surve
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