The Avifauna. 



41 



When it first reached the hands of the pres- 

 ent possessor, the holes which appear so 

 completely dotting the wood were very 

 nearly all filled with acorns, the holes being 

 worked into the wood and the acorns 

 placed therein by the patient toil of the 

 woodpecker. The mountain hunters, who 

 brought the specimen to town, told a rather 

 interesting story of their find. They were 

 eating their mid-day lunch, when they be- 

 came aware of rather a noisy conclave of 

 birds near by. They investigated, and this 

 is what they saw : — 



About the old dead tree trunk were per- 

 haps half a dozen woodpeckers, chattering 

 and scolding in a most animated manner. 

 They had been filling their storehouse and 

 a score or more of black bandits had beset 

 them, helping themselves to the product of 

 their labor and ruthlessly destroying a 

 large portion of what they did not eat, it 

 being scattered about on the ground in all 

 directions. And there were the bandits, 

 the black robbers. 



A lot of crows ! they were out on a real 

 lark. They had discovered the smaller 

 birds, industriously at their work, and in 

 apparent deviltry decided ' ' to hold them 

 up," rummage their house, and steal, de- 

 stroy, and mock the owners. And the 

 rascals were there at their task. 



They would rush to the old tree, tear out 

 the acorns, scatter them on the ground, 

 and then "caw, caw, caw " their delight 

 at the remonstrances of the woodpeckers. 



This was continued some time, when ap- 

 parently weary of their sport, the crows 

 flew off in a body and sat upon a near-by 

 tree, and watched their victims repair, as 

 best they could, their loss. But even then 

 the crows were not content, but must add 

 insult to injury by continued ribald caws. 



It was an interesting and very humorous 

 affair, though the hunters ended the con- 

 clave by a couple of shots which left two 

 of the black rascals lying dead upon the 

 ground. F. S. 



Notes on the Mocking=Bird. 



I I yHIIvE spending a few days, recently, 

 with my son Dr. R. W. Hatch, in Los 

 Angeles, I enjoyed an exceptionally good 

 opportunity for observing the Mocking- 

 birds. They are really very common in 

 the residence portions of the city, and are 

 already bringing up their second brood of 

 young. Never having lived where I could 

 observe the habits of this species of birds, 

 and there being apparently but few birds to 

 be seen in general, I was able to notice this 

 species minutely. At a distance of two 

 hundred feet from the porch of his resi- 

 dence, I could continuously see from three 

 to five males, and hear as many more at 

 increased distances during most of the day, 

 and /learthem all during most of the bright, 

 moonlight nights. The singers, almost 

 uniformly, were perched on the corner of 

 a tall, unused chimney, in which the female 

 was sitting, as was evident by his occa- 

 sional disappearance down the inside of it, 

 and constituted about the only interruptions 

 of his varied song, made up of snatches 

 from nearly every bird song I have any rec- 

 ollections of having ever heard. While 

 visible, with no interruption to his song, 

 each singer would bound up into the air 

 from three to five feet, and turning instantly 

 would resume the corner of the chimney, 

 in which performance he displayed his pat- 

 tern and plumage so perfectly that no mis- 

 take as to his identity was possible. It 

 seemed to be a method of working off 

 the excess of his energies to avoid explo- 

 sion. The mimicry includes much more: 

 variety in their freedom than in captivity.. 

 And I fancy that it is more mellifluent, 

 which, however, I will not assume to be a 

 fact, without further opportunity for ob- 

 serving. 



P. L, Hatch, M. D. 



H. A. Gaylord reports the taking of an allino 

 specimen from a flock of fifty Western Chipping 

 Sparrows in 1894. 



