THE AMERICAN RABBIT.— Continued from page 26. 



the foot of a grave. While reading 

 the inscription on the tombstone we 

 were startled by a quick rush from the 

 bush, and discovering the nest, in 

 which there were five tiny young with 

 wide open eyes, we took them up ten- 

 derly and carried them home. We 

 too, were young then. Admonished 

 that we had cruelly deprived a mother 

 of her offspring, and that our duty was 



to return them to her, we unwillingly 

 obeyed, and put them back in the little 

 cavern. They huddled together once 

 more and no doubt were soon welcomed 

 by their parents. 



A frosty Saturday morning, a light 

 snow covering the ground, a common 

 cur dog, Cottontail tracks, and a small, 

 happy boy. Do you not see yourself 

 as in a vision? 



THIRTY MILES FOR AN ACORN. 



Far away I hear a drumming — 



Tap, tap, tap! 

 Can the Woodpecker be coming 



After sap ? 



^^V OWN in Mexico there lives 

 I a Woodpecker who stores 

 \c\ m his nuts and acorns in 

 (""X^^^ the hollow stalks of the 

 yuccas and magueys. 

 These hollow stalks are separated by 

 joints into several cavities, and the 

 sagacious bird has somehow found this 

 out, and bores a hole at the upper end 

 of each joint and another at the lower, 

 through which to extract the acorns 

 when wanted. Then it fills up the 

 stalks solidly and leaves its stores there 

 until needed, safe from the depreda- 

 tions of any thievish bird or four- 

 footed animal. 



The first place in which this curious 

 habit was observed was on a hill in 

 the midst of a desert. The hill was 

 covered with yuccas and magueys, but 

 the nearest oak trees were thirty miles 

 away, and so it was calculated, these 

 industrious birds had to make a flight 

 of sixty miles for each acorn stowed 

 thus in the stalks! 



An observer of birds remarks : 

 " There are several strange features to 

 be noticed in these facts: the provident 

 instinct which prompts this bird to lay 

 by stores of provisions for the winter, 

 the great distance traversed to collect 

 a kind of food so unusual for its race, 

 and its seeking in a place so remote 

 from its natural abode a storehouse so 

 remarkable." 



Can instinct 

 experience and 



alone teach, or have 

 reason taught these 

 birds that, far better than the bark of 

 trees or crevices in rocks or any other 

 hiding place are these hidden cavities 

 they make for themselves with the 

 hollow stems of distant plants? 



This we cannot answer. But we do 

 know that one of the most remarkable 

 birds in our country is this California 

 Woodpecker, and that he is well en- 

 titled to his Mexican name of el car- 

 pintero — the carpenter bird. — Ex- 

 change. 



29 



