HARD FARE. 59 



the cob of its kernels. They finally came to the 

 window-sill and picked up the loose kernels I scat- 

 tered there. At no time did they eat any on the 

 spot, but were solely intent on carrying it away. 

 They would take eight or ten grains at a time, ap- 

 parently holding it in the throat and bill. They 

 carried it away and deposited it in all manner of 

 places; sometimes on the ground, sometimes in de- 

 cayed trees. Once I saw a jay deposit his load in an 

 old worm's nest in a near by apple-tree. Whether 

 these stores were visited afterward by the birds, I 

 cannot say. Red-headed woodpeckers have been seen 

 to fill crevices in posts and rails with acorns, where 

 they were found and eaten by gray squirrels. Oregon 

 and Mexican woodpeckers drill holes in decayed trees 

 and store them with acorns, putting but one acorn in 

 a hole, but hundreds of holes in a tree or branch. 



A bevy of quail in my vicinity got through the 

 winter by feeding upon the little black beans con- 

 tained in the pods of the common locust. For many 

 weeks their diet must have been almost entirely le- 

 guminous. The surface snow in the locust-grove 

 which they frequented was crossed in every direction 

 with their fine tracks, like a chain-stitch upon mus- 

 lin, showing where they went from pod to pod and 

 extracted the contents. Where quite a large branch, 

 filled with pods, lay upon the snow, it looked as if the 

 whole flock had dined or breakfasted off it. The 

 wind seemed to shake down the pods about as fast as 

 they were needed. When a fresh fall of snow had 



