136 ANIMALS AT WORK AND PL A Y 



flocks. These he presented with some of the 

 aphides used by their cow-keeping relations. The 

 ants instantly attacked, killed, and ate them, be- 

 having , in exactly the same improvident manner 

 as a tribe of Australian * black-fellows ' when pre- 

 sented with a flock of sheep. A little known 

 and striking instance of foresight and industry 

 exhibited by a bird is that of the Californian 

 woodpecker. Like others of its kind, this bird 

 is an insect-eater. Yet in view of the approach 

 of winter, it prepares a store of food of a wholly 

 different character, and arranges this with as 

 much care as an epicure might devote to the 

 storage of his wine in a cellar. In the summer, 

 the woodpecker lives on ants. For the winter 

 it stores up acorns. To hold each acorn it hollows 

 a small hole in a tree, into which the acorn is 

 exactly fitted, and is ready to be split by the 

 strong beak of the climbing woodpecker, though 

 too tightly held to be stolen either by squirrels or 

 other birds. A relation of this woodpecker inhabits 

 the driest parts of Mexico, where, during the 

 droughts, it must die of starvation, unless it made 

 a store. To prevent this it selects the hollow stem 

 of a species of aloe, the bore of which is just 

 large enough to hold a nut. The woodpecker drills 

 holes at intervals in the stem, and fiJls it from 



