572 X<»I!TII AMKIilCAX I'.IllDS. 



^Viid wlicn wo are coiifrontoil with tlie fact, wliich \\\i ilo not i'oel at liberty 

 to altogether disreganl, that in very large regions this bird seems to labor in 

 vain, and makes no use of the treasures it has tlius heaped togetlier, we 

 can only attempt an explanation. Tliis Woodpecker is found over an im- 

 mense area. It everywliere lias tiie .same instinctive promptings to provide, 

 not 'for a rainy day," but for the exact op])osite, — for a long interval 

 during which no rain falls, for nearly two Inindred days at a time, in all the 

 low and hot lands of Mexico and Central America. Tliere these accumula- 

 tions become a necessity, tluire we are informed tiiey do eat the acorns, and, 

 more than this, many other l)irds and beasts derive tlie means of self-pres- 

 ervation in times of famine I'rom the jirovident laliors of this bird. Tiiat in 

 Oregon, in California, and in tlie mountains of Mexico and elsewliere, 

 where better and more natural food offers throughout the year, it is rarely 

 known to eat the acorns it has thus labored to save, only seems to prove that 

 it acts under tlie inlhiences of an undiscriniinating instinct that prompts it 

 to giitiier in its storc.'i wlicther it needs them or not. 



It may be, too, that writers have too hastily inferred tliat the.se birds never 

 eat the acorns, because they have been unalile to oljtain complete evidence 

 of tlu! iact. We have recently received from C. W. I'lass, Esq., some inter- 

 esting facts, which, if they do not jirove tliut the.se birds in the winter visit 

 their stores and eat their acorns, render it highly prol)alile. Mr. Plass re- 

 sides near Napa City, Cal., near which city, and on the edge of the pine 

 forests, he has recently constructed a house. Tiie gable-ends of this dwelling 

 the California WoodjK'ckers have found a very convenient storehouse for 

 their acorns, and j\Ir. Plass has very ccjusiderately permitted them to do so 

 unmolested. The window in the gable slides up upon puUies its whole 

 length, to admit of a passage to the upper verandah, and tlio open space in 

 the wall admits of the nuts falling down into tiie upper hall, and this fre- 

 quently liappens when the birds attempt to extricate them from the outside. 

 Xearly all tliese nuts an^ found to lie sound, and contain no worm, while 

 those that fall outside are empty shells. Emjity shells liave also lieen 

 noticed by Mr. Plass under the trees, indicating that the acorns have been 

 eaten. 



Tiie Smithsonian Institution has received specimens of the American race 

 of this Woo(l]iecker, collected at IJelize liy Dr. Berendt, and accompanied 

 liy illustrations of their work in the way of implantation of acorns in the 

 bark of trees. 



The eggs of tliis Woodjiecker, obtained by Mr. Emanuel Samuels near 

 Petaluma, Cal., and now in the collection of the P)Oston Society of Natural 

 History, are undistinguisliable from tlie eggs of other Woodpeckers in form 

 or color, except that they are somewhat oblong, and measure 1.12 inches in 

 length by .90 of an inch in breadth. 



