A RED-HEADED COUSIN 59 



the sapsucker eats beechnuts, and the downy 

 and the hairy woodpeckers also; that the red- 

 belhed woodpecker and the goklen-winged flicker 

 eat acorns ; and I have seen the downy wood- 

 pecker eating chestnuts, or the grubs in them, 

 hanging head downward at the very tip of the 

 branches Hke a chickadee. It may be possible 

 that some of these lay up winter stores. 



It is known that the Lewis's woodpecker oc- 

 casionally shows signs of a hoarding instinct. It 

 was recently noted that in the San Bernardino 

 Mountains of California the Lewis's woodpecker, 

 after driving away the smaller Californian wood- 

 peckers, tried to put acorns into the holes the 

 Carpenter had made, but, being unused to the 

 work, did it very clum- 

 sily. Soon after this ob- 

 servation was published, ^^^^^^ 

 a boy friend living near 

 Denver told me that a 



short time before he had ^ead of the Lewis's Woodpecker. 



seen a woodpecker that had a large quantity 

 of acorns shelled and broken into quarters, on 

 which he was feeding. This woodpecker was 

 identified beyond a doubt as the Lewis's wood- 

 pecker. So we begin to suspect that the habit 

 of storing up food is not an uncommon one 

 among the woodpeckers. 



