HARD FARE 53 



here and there. Jays will carry off and secrete corn 

 in the same way. One winter I put out ears of 

 corn near my study window to attract these birds. 

 They were not long in finding them out, nor long 

 in stripping the cob of its kernels. They finally 

 came to the window-sill and picked up the loose 

 kernels I scattered 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, apparently 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 

 decayed 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 

 leguminous. The surface snow in the locust-grove 

 which they frequented was crossed in every direc- 

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

 muslins, showing where they went from pod to pod 

 and extracted the contents. Where quite a large 



