Organic Connection Between Physical and Psychical 269 



at once for food, or of taking it directly into her home, she 

 sometimes leaves it on the road, and runs to her home, even 

 though this is threatened by no danger. Then after a time 

 she returns to the game. This going-and-coming may be 

 performed repeatedly before the carcass is finally taken into 

 the dwelling. If by chance the game is removed during the 

 absence of the wasp, the wasp returns to the spot where her 

 load was left, but, not finding it, she, nevertheless, keeps up 

 the going-and-coming for some time. The first back-and- 

 forth journey from game to dwelling is explicable, Fabre 

 shows. "But what is the use of the other visits, repeated 

 so speedily one after another?" Fabre inquires. 1 Something 

 like this almost every one must have seen, who has watched in- 

 sects at all. 



I am quite certain that the acorn storing habit of the 

 California woodpecker, Melanerpes formicivorus bairdi, is 

 quite beyond any use the bird makes of the acorns. In the 

 first place, despite much discussion of the question whether 

 the acorns are used at all, and if so how, the case is by no 

 means clear. But the point I particularly wish to make is 

 that whatever use, if any, the birds make of the acorns, 

 whether as food directlv or as culture media for worms or 



V 



insects, these in turn to be eaten by the birds, they store up 

 many more than they utilize. This seems to me highly prob- 

 able from the fact, which I have ascertained by numerous 

 examinations at different places and times, that many holes 

 contain dried up and wasted acorns which show no signs 

 of having been picked at or otherwise moved after they were 

 inserted into the holes. Furthermore, the great extent of 

 the hole-drilling and filling in itself seems to exceed the 

 bounds of necessity, especially in view of the certainty that 

 the bird's chief food supply is from quite another source. A 

 pine log fifty feet long and one hundred thirty-six inches in 

 girth at the middle, which I found in the San Jacinto Moun- 

 tains, contained on a fairly careful estimate 31,800 holes, 



