68 THE WOODPECKERS 



them up for winter use. This time the observa- 

 tion was made in Indiana. There, when the nuts 

 were abundant, the red-heads were seen busily 

 carrying them off. Their accumulations were 

 found in all sorts of places : cavities in old tree- 

 trunks contained nuts by the handful ; knot- 

 holes, cracks, crevices, seams in the barns were 

 filled full of nuts. Nuts were tucked into the 

 cracks in fence-posts ; they were driven into 

 railroad ties ; they were pounded in between 

 the shingles on the roofs ; if a board was sprung 

 out, the space behind it was filled with nuts, 

 and bark or wood was often brought to cover 

 over the gathered store. No doubt children 

 often found these hiding-places and ate the nuts, 

 thinking they were robbing some squirrel's 

 hoard. 



In the South, where the beech-tree is re- 

 placed by the oak, the red-heads eat acorns. I 

 should like to know whether they store acorns 

 as they do beechnuts. Are chestnuts ever laid 

 up for winter ? How far south is the habit kept 

 up ? Is it observed beyond the limits of a regu- 

 lar and considerable snowfall ? That is, do the 

 birds lay up their nuts in order to keep them 

 out of the snow, or for some other reason ? 



It remains to be discovered if other wood- 

 peckers have hoarding-places. We know that 



