EL PAJARO LENO 



OR 



THE CALIFORNIA WOODPECKER ^^^ • 



By Anstruther Davidson, M.D. aAR^Ki'^ 



' ' The woodpecker came from liis home in the tree 

 And brought his bill to the company 

 For cherries ripe and cherries red. 

 A very long bill so the birdies said." 



Birds in general are wafted into this world equipped with 

 the weapons and tools nature deems sufficient for their main- 

 tenance. The inherited traits of their parents are uniformly 

 transmitted; they live, perpetuate their race, and die. Each 

 generation begins where the other began, toils on unremit- 

 tingly, and on dying leaves no nuiterial inheritance. The homes 

 the birds build perish, they transmit no {)roperty rights to 

 their successors, each individual in every generation is a hum- 

 ble toiler like its parent. 



To this general law the woodpecker is an exception; he 

 is nature 's masterpiece among birds ; he inherits something 

 more than habit. He inherits, if not a livelihood, at least the 

 means whereby it may be more easily acquired. He inherits 

 a personal estate, an interest in the forest reserves that makes 

 him an aristocrat among l)irds. 



Time was when the woodpecker had to labor assiduously 

 all the autumn, digging holes in the bark of the pines to con- 

 tain a store of acorns for winter use. Laborious work it must 

 have been so that between sharpening his beak and digging- 

 holes, he must have had little leisure or inclination to develop 

 the artistic side of his nature. 



In Southern California the woodpecker digs no more holes, 

 for some of the trees to their topmost branches, 100 feet from 

 the earth, are literally freckled with acorn pits. All that the 

 woodpecker now needs to do is to put a nut into each hole in 

 the autumn and, when he feels like dining to go to the tree 

 and eat a few. 



The luxury of being a "gold bug" is notbing to this; it 

 is almost like the rustic's idea of happiness "to swing on a 

 gate and eat bacon all day long." 



The most common woodpecker in the coast ranges is the 

 Carpintero (Melanerpes formieiverus, Swainson,) a beautiful 

 bird, abundant where nuts are plentifvil, and not at all shy in 

 its habit. The wookpecker's habit of storing acorns for winter 

 use is not at all peculiar to himself even among birds. The 

 jays frequently do the same, but only as a casual piece of 

 thrift; the woodpeckers do it as a matter of business. Trees 



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