. [Collected reprints, 1895-1916. Birds. FLICKER. 17 terrestrial of all the woodpeckers, in spite of his high-perching and high-nesting proclivities, and may often be seem^alking about in the grass like a meadow lark. In the investigation of its food habits 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 i^Torthwest Territory, and are fairly well distributed over the region east of the Eocky Mountains. They contained 56 per cent of animal matter, 39 percent of vegeta
. [Collected reprints, 1895-1916. Birds. FLICKER. 17 terrestrial of all the woodpeckers, in spite of his high-perching and high-nesting proclivities, and may often be seem^alking about in the grass like a meadow lark. In the investigation of its food habits 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 i^Torthwest Territory, and are fairly well distributed over the region east of the Eocky Mountains. They contained 56 per cent of animal matter, 39 percent of vegetable, and 5 percent 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:. ttn. Fig. 2.—Flicker. Ants [Hymenoptera), beetles {Goleovtera), bugs {Semiptera), grasshop- pers and crickets (Or«/io^fera), caterpillars {Lepidoptera),'^ies {Ephe- merida) and white ants {Isoptera). Spiders and myriapods also were pres- ent. An inspection of this insect 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 Beal, F. E. L. (Foster Ellenborough Lascelles), 1840-191
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