. [Collected reprints, 1895-1916. Birds. 294 YEARBOOK OF THE DEPARTMENT OP Fig. -Hairy woodpecker (Dryo- batesvillosiis). beetle larvse and more caterpillars, and thus renders quite as good service in the orchard. In winter, birds of both these species are more pressed for food than in summer, and may be seen busily searching the crevices in the. bark, where they find hibernating insects and insects' eggs. By devouring these they desti'oy many enemies that would have attacked the trees at the approach of warm weather. Flicker.—The dicker {Colaptes auratus, fig. 37), another
. [Collected reprints, 1895-1916. Birds. 294 YEARBOOK OF THE DEPARTMENT OP Fig. -Hairy woodpecker (Dryo- batesvillosiis). beetle larvse and more caterpillars, and thus renders quite as good service in the orchard. In winter, birds of both these species are more pressed for food than in summer, and may be seen busily searching the crevices in the. bark, where they find hibernating insects and insects' eggs. By devouring these they desti'oy many enemies that would have attacked the trees at the approach of warm weather. Flicker.—The dicker {Colaptes auratus, fig. 37), another member of the woodpecker family, is well known to most orchardists and farmers. It is larger than either the downy or the hairy woodpecker, and differs somewhat from them in its food habits. It eats fewer beetles and caterpillars, but devours an enormous number of ants. Two stomachs were examined, each of which contained more than 3,0()0 , and in a third were 5,000, of a very minute species. Not all of these ants, however, are obtained from trees; many are species that burrow in the earth, for the flicker is more terrestrial than most of the other woodpeckers, and takes much of its food from the ground. Yellow-bellied woodpecker.—On the other hand, some harm to fruit trees is to be charged against this family, though there is much popular misapprehension in this regard. The smaller species have been called sapsuckers, from the supposition that they puncture holes in the bark of trees in order to get the sap and soft inner bark. The charge is well grounded, but only one species, so far as known, causes any appreciable harm through the practice. This is the yellow-bellied wood- pecker {S2>lii/raj>icm rarlus, fig. 38), whose summer range is confined to Canada, the northern portions of the United States, and the AlloghcMiy Mountains, and whose winter residciico is in the Southern States. This bird is injurious to certain trees, at times removing the outer bark over a
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