EL CARPINTERO 49 



amount of nuts some other birds will eat, I 

 should think that all ten acorns contained in this 

 piece of bark could be eaten in one day without 

 surfeit. The estimate seems to me well inside 

 of his probable appetite. I have experimented 

 on this piece of bark, using a woodpecker's bill 

 for a tool, and it takes me twenty minutes to 

 dig a hole as large but not as neat as these. 

 Doubtless it would not take the woodpecker as 

 long ; but at my rate of working, four hours 

 were spent in digging these twelve holes. Then 

 each acorn had to be hunted up and brought to 

 the hole prepared for it. This entailed a jour- 

 ney, it may have been only from one tree to 

 another, or it may have been, and very likely was, 

 a considerable flight. For these acorns grew on 

 oak-trees, and we find them driven into the bark 

 of pines and spruces. 



This it is which gives our specimen its particu- 

 lar interest. While oaks and pines may be inter- 

 mingled, though they naturally prefer different 

 soils and situations, and in the Rocky Mountains 

 the pine-belt lies above the oak region, spruce 

 and oak trees do not grow in the same soil. 

 The spruce-belt stands higher up than the pine. 

 As these nuts are stored in the bark of a spruce- 

 tree, we have clear evidence that the bird must 

 have carried them some distance. For every 



