340 



AXIMAL LIFE IX THE TO SEMITE 



California Woodpeckers was found to regularly visit the fresh, bleeding 

 borings of a red-breasted sapsucker in a golden oak — evidently sponging 

 on their industrious neighbor. 



Fig. 48. {a) Fence-post studded with acorns of blue oak, storage method of the 

 California Woodpecker. Photographed near Pleasant Valley, February 27, 1916. (b) 

 Lewis Woodpecker at nest site in stub of Jeffrey pine. Photographed at Walker Lake, 

 June 26, 1916. 



In Yosemite Valley, these woodpeckers were observed during all our 

 visits, winter and summer, in seemingly unvarying though not large 

 numbers. Some days, however, they were very quiet, and might easily 

 be overlooked in one entire morning's census; at other times their nasal 

 chatter sounded almost continually, especially from along the nortli side 

 of the Valley from the Royal Arches west to below Rocky Point. Often 

 a pair or more made excursions from tree to tree through the cottonwoods 

 around Sentinel Meadow, where they occasionally exhibited the trait of 

 flycatching common to several species of this family. Launching out 

 from a prominent tree top with vigorous wing-beats to waylay a passing 

 insect, they would return in a wide sweep to the starting point. It is not 

 to be inferred from the acorn-storing habit dwelt upon above that insects 



