Page 248 - Our Vanishing Wild Life

226 OUR VANISHING WILD LIFE
andthelatterasquareone. Inkillingthem,pleasedonotkillanyother hawk by mistake; and if you do not positively recognize the bird, don't shoot.
The Goshawk is a bad one, and so is the Peregrine Falcon, or Duck Hawk. Both deserve death, but they are so rare that we need not take them into account.
Some of the hawks and owls are very destructive to song-birds, and membersofthegrousefamily. In159stomachsofsharp-shinnedhawks, 99containedsong-birdsandwoodpeckers. In133stomachsofCooper's hawks, 34 contained poultry or game birds, and 52 contained other birds. The game birds included 8 quail, 1 ruffed grouse and 5 pigeons.
The Woodpeckers.*—These birds are the natural guardians of the trees. If we had enough of them, our forests would be fairly safe from in- sectpests. OfthesixorsevenNorthAmericanspeciesthatareofthemost importance to our forests, the Downy Woodpecker, {Dryobates pu- bescens) is accorded first rank. It is one of the smallest species. The contents of 140 stomachs consisted of 74 per cent insects, 25 per cent vegetable matter and 1 per cent sand. The insects were ants, beetles, bugs, flies, caterpillars, grasshoppers and a few spiders.
The Hairy Woodpecker, {Dryobates villosus), a very close relation of the preceding species, is also small, and his food supply is as follows: insects, 68 per cent, vegetable matter 31, mineral 1.
The Golden-Winged Woodpecker, (Colaptes auratus), is the largest and handsomest of all the woodpeckers that we really see in evidence. The Pileated is one of the largest, but we never see it. This bird makes a specialty of ants, of which it devours immense numbers.' Its food is 56 per cent animal matter (three-fourths of which is ants), 39 per cent is vegetable matter, and 5 per cent mineral matter.
The Red-Headed Woodpecker is a serious fruit-eater, and many complaints have been lodged against him. Exactly one-half his food supply consists of vegetable matter, chiefly wild berries, acorns, beech- nuts,andtheseedsofwildshrubsandweeds. Wemayinferthatabout one-tenth of his food, in summer and fall, consists of cultivated fruit and berries. Hisproportionofcultivatedfoodsisentirelytoosmalltojustify any one in destroying this species.
In view of the prevalence of insect pests in the state of New York, I have spent hours in trying to devise a practical plan for making wood- peckers about ten times more numerous than they now are. Contribu- tions to this problem will be thankfully received. Yes; we do put out pork fat and suet in winter, quantities of it; but I grieve to say that to-day in the Zoological Park there is not more than one woodpecker for every ten that were there twelve years ago. Where have they gone' Only one answer is possible. They have been shot and eaten, by the guerrillas of destruction.
*The reader is advised to consult Prof. F. E. L. Beale's admirable report on "The Food of Woodpeckers," Bulletin No. 7, U. S. Department of Agriculture.