PICID^ — THE WOODPECKERS. 569 



with difficulty extracted. Thus, the bark of a large pine forty or fifty feet 

 high will present the appearance of being closely studded with brass nails, 

 the heads only being visible. These acorns are thus stored in large quanti- 

 ties, and serve not only the Woodpecker, but trespassers as well. Dr. Heer- 

 mann speaks of the nest as being excavated in the body of the tree to a 

 depth varying from six inches to two feet, the eggs being four or five in 

 number, and pure white. 



These very remarkable and, for a Woodpecker, somewhat anomalous 

 habits, first mentioned among American writers by Dr. Heermann, have 

 given rise to various conflicting statements and theories in regard to the 

 design of these collections of acorns. Some have even ventured to discredit 

 the facts, but these are too well authenticated to be questioned. Too many 

 naturalists whose accuracy cannot be doubted have been eyewitnesses to 

 these performances. Among these is Mi\ J. K. Lord, who, however, was 

 constrained to confess his utter inability to explain why the birds did so. 

 He was never able to find an acorn that seemed to have been eaten, nor a 

 trace of vegetable matter in their stomachs, and at the close of his investi- 

 gations he frankly admitted this storing of acorns to be a mystery for which 

 he could offer no satisfactory explanation. 



M. H. de Saussure, the Swiss naturalist, in an interesting paper published 

 in 1858 in the Bibliotheque Universelle of Geneva, furnishes some very 

 interesting observations on the habits of a Woodpecker, which he supposed 

 to be the Colaptes mexicanoides of Mexico, of storing collections of acorns in 

 the hollow stems of the maguay plants. Sumichrast, who accompanied 

 Saussure in his excursion, while recognizing the entire truth of the interest- 

 ing facts he narrates, is confident that the credit of all this instinctive fore- 

 thought belongs not to the Colaptes, but to the Mexican race of this species. 

 Saussure's article being too long to quote in full, we give an abstract. 



The slopes of a volcanic mountain, Pizarro, near Perote, in Mexico, are 

 covered with immense beds of the maguay (Agave americana), with larger 

 growths of yuccas, but without any other large shrubs or trees. Saus- 

 sure was surprised to find this silent and dismal wilderness swarming with 

 Woodpeckers. A circumstance so unusual as this large congregation of birds, 

 by nature so solitary, in a spot so unattractive, prompted him to inves- 

 tigate the mystery. The birds were seen to fly first to the stalks of the 

 maguay, to attack them with their beaks, and then to pass to the yuccas, 

 and there repeat their labors. These stalks, upon examination, were all 

 found to be riddled with holes, placed irregularly one above another, and 

 communicating with the hollow cavity within. On cutting open one of 

 these stalks, he found it filled with acorns. 



As is well known, this plant, after flowering, dies, its stalk remains, its outer 

 covering hardens into a flinty texture, and its centre becomes hollow. This 

 convenient cavity is used by the Woodpecker as a storehouse for provisions 

 that are unusual food for tlie tribe. The central cavity of the stalk is only 



VOL. ir. 72 



