PROVISIONS AND DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 89 



him, and only by a series of reiterated efforts would 

 the interior be exposed ; but for the American wood- 

 pecker the task is simpHfied ; each acorn being main- 

 tained firmly in the bark, it is sufficient to break the 

 envelope and the pulp is easily seized. ^ 



A relation of this bird, the Colaptes mexicanus, does 

 not yield to him in economy and skill. He places 

 his barn in the interior of a plant which is very 

 abundant in the zone he inhabits. Insectivorous 

 during a part of the year, he is forced to renounce 

 this diet during the dry season. In the regions of 

 Mexico where this bird is found the dry period is so 

 absolute that he would die of hunger for want of 

 insects or fruits if he had not taken the precaution of 

 laying up stores during spring. His store consists of 

 acorns. He has not time to fix them one by one, like 

 the Melanerpes, and only thinks at first of rapidly 

 collecting a large quantity. But it is in deciding the 

 question as to where they are to be laid up that the 

 Colaptes shows his remarkable intelligence. In the 

 forests where he lives are to be found aloes, yuccas, and 

 agaves. When the agaves have flowered, the flower- 

 bearing stem, two or three metres in length, shrivels, 

 but remains standing for some time. Its peripheral 

 portion is hardened by the heat, while the sap in the 

 interior almost entirely disappears. A hollow cylinder 

 with a well-sheltered cavity is thus formed, and the 

 Colaptes proposes to utilise it as a storehouse. His 

 acorns will there be well protected against external 

 influences and against the birds whose beaks are too 

 weak to pierce the agave. It is then a question of filling 



1 See, for instance. Nature, 20th July 1871 ; also A. L Heermann, 

 "Notes on the Birds of California," /««/■«. Acad. Nat. Sc. Phila- 

 delphia, 2nd Series, vol. ii., 1853, p. 259. 



