. [Collected reprints, 1895-1916. Birds. HOW BIRDS AFFECT THE OKCHABD. 293. especially subject to their attacks. Ants protect these plant lice from harm, and, when the plant on which they are feeding is exhausted, carry them to fresh pastures, and in some cases actually build shelters over them. Besides destroying the ants, the downy woodpecker eats many of the plant lice. Again, when the woodpecker has, by its keen sense of hearing, located the larva of a wood-boring beetle in a tree, and dislodged it with the aid of the sharp-edged chisel and probe, there is much likeli- hood that the next t
. [Collected reprints, 1895-1916. Birds. HOW BIRDS AFFECT THE OKCHABD. 293. especially subject to their attacks. Ants protect these plant lice from harm, and, when the plant on which they are feeding is exhausted, carry them to fresh pastures, and in some cases actually build shelters over them. Besides destroying the ants, the downy woodpecker eats many of the plant lice. Again, when the woodpecker has, by its keen sense of hearing, located the larva of a wood-boring beetle in a tree, and dislodged it with the aid of the sharp-edged chisel and probe, there is much likeli- hood that the next time it visits the tree it will find a colony of ants snugly estab- lished in the burrow of the defunct gruVj, whose somewhat lim- ited quarters they are extending in every direction. It now brings to bear upon the ants the same ap- paratus it used in the case of the grub, and tney are soon drawn —special development ot tongues of woodpeckers? a, skull of out and devoured. flicker (Cofaptesam-d/Ms), showing root of tongue extending to tip T'rnTn tViP'p + of bill (after Lindahl); 6, head of hairy woodpecker (Di-yobates villosus), showing root of tongue curving around eye (after Audu- sources are obtained ton). the ants that are found in the food of this bird, and that constitute 23 per cent of that food. In both cases the insects are harmful, and the woodpecker stops the injur}' and benefits the tree. Of the food of the downy woodpecker, 13 per cent consists of wood- boring coleopterous larvae, insects that do an immense amount of dam- age to fruit and forest trees, and are, as stated, protected from the attacks of ordinary birds bj' their habit of burrowing in trees. Besides the grubs taken from within the wood, the woodpecker eats many of the parent insects from whose eggs these grubs are hatched. It also destroys numerous other species that live upon the foliage and bark. Caterpillars, both those that bore into the tree and those that live upon the leaves, constitute
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