CONSPICUOUSLY BLACK AND WHITE 377 



speech, emphasizing his conversation with ludicrous con- 

 tortions of his body. 



But his uniqueness lies in his habit of storing up food 

 for the winter, according to the advice of King Solomon, 

 — food in this instance meaning the cartridge-like acorns 

 of the live oaks. For each one of these he chisels out 

 a hole which is so exact a fit that once the nut is in, 

 man requires a tool to get it out. Round and round a 

 tree he goes, filling it as full of these acorns as the law 

 allows, and not sparing the limbs until it is honeycombed 

 from top to bottom. In front of the residence of Dr. 

 David Starr Jordan at Palo Alto, stands one of these 

 trees, a living monument to the industry of Melanerpes 

 formicivorus bairdi. 



Like the redhead again, he is a valiant defender of his 

 property, — be it acorns, eggs, or nestlings. He is uni- 

 versally lord of all he surveys, fearing no bird of his own 

 size and no quadruped of any size. He will fly furiously 

 at a squirrel, and set upon a cat without the least 

 hesitation, aiming directly for its eyes, provided puss is 

 dangerously near his young. Though I have never found 

 him quarrelsome or tyrannical, I have frequently noticed 

 that smaller birds scatter when he alights in their 

 vicinity. 



His nest is excavated in a live oak tree, usually on 

 the under side of a large branch at some distance from 

 the trunk, and from fifteen to twenty-five feet fi-om the 

 ground. Both male and female share in the labor of 

 excavating the nest and in the incubation of the eggs. 

 The cavity is usually about eighteen inches deep, five 



