40 



THE AUDUBON BULLETIN 



least tap had been 

 made on the house 

 itself. My curiosity 

 becoming further 

 aroused I secured a 

 ladder and found on 

 investigation bits of 

 oak bark and acorns 

 pushed through the 

 small entrance. From 

 this time on we gave. 

 the feathered beauty 

 considerable atten- 

 tion and found he 

 was filling both hous- 

 es and had the openings sealed with grass and mud. He stayed 

 with us the entire winter coming often to sit upon the porch of 

 the wren houses bathed in the winter's sun, but made no attempt 

 to disturb his treasure, probably due to the fact that the winter 

 was an open one and very little snow and to the fact that we 

 provided a feeding place for such as desired to partake. This 

 spring when Mr. Woodpecker seemed to have forgotten his treas- 

 ure house and it was time to prepare for possible tenants I took 

 down both houses, after photographing them in position, and 

 found store or food provided by the bird. The contents of each 

 house weighed a trifle over 12% ounces and contained 201 and 

 203 pieces of bark and acorns respectively, the acorns being 

 quite dry due to the bark. Many folks to whom we related 

 the incidents said it was the work of a squirrel but eye witnesses 

 of several of the family easily disproved this as we would from 

 time to time see Mr. Woodpecker bring some of his treasure 

 and put it into the house then perched there continue pecking 

 and hammering away until he had by repeated trips completely 

 filled the houses as I discovered upon opening them in the spring. 



I gave one of the 

 houses to the Boy 

 Boy Scouts Head- 

 quarters of this city 

 for its bird exhibit 

 and still retain the 

 other although it 

 has made several 

 trips to various 

 school rooms as an 

 interesting lesson 

 to the children of 

 the provision the 

 bird makes for an 

 emergency (its 

 thrift being in the 



