400 



ZOOLOGY BIRDS. 



with that of the oaks, the acorns of which appear to constitute a very impor- 

 tant item in its bill of fare. We noticed it to the southward in every locality 

 where the oaks were found in sufficiently large groves to afford it at once a 

 place of shelter and an inexhaustible source whence to draw food. Many of 

 the branches of these, as well as less frequently the dead limbs of the pines, 

 bore evidence of having been used by these birds as places of deposit for 

 the over abundant crop of acorns, circular holes being drilled in regular 

 rows for the purpose of receiving the acorns, which are then carried up and 

 inserted tightly in the cavity. With what intention the bird thus puts itself to 

 all this trouble, or whether it has any intention beyond the idea of amusing 

 itself for the passing moment, is not well understood. The fact remains, 

 and it is tolerably certain that they do occasionally, when hard pressed by 

 hunger, resort in winter to these stores, and find in them the needed supply of 

 food. In the fall, they glean from among the foliage much of their food in 

 the shape of various insects. They are sociable in the extreme, and one 

 hearing the notes of a single bird may feel assured that hard by are more 

 or less of his comrades. 



COLAPTES MEXIOANUS (Swains.). 



Red-shafted Flicker. 



Colaptes mexicanus, SWAINS., Syn. Birds Mex., in Phil. Mag., i, 1827, 440. NEWB , P. 

 R. R. Rep., vi, 1857, 91. BD., Ives' Col. Exped., 1857-58, pt. iv, 5. HEERM., 

 P. R. R. Rep., x, pt. iv, 1859, 59. XANTUS, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Pbila., 

 1859, 190 (Fort Tejou, Gal.). BD., U. S. & Mex. Bound. Surv., ii, pt. ii, 



