114 LIFE HISTORIES OP NOETH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



Dr. E. A. Mearns, United States Army, separated the birds found in Arizona 

 from those in CaUfornia and Oregon, describing the southern form as Melanerpes 

 formicivorus aculeatus, and taking into consideration the principal difference 

 claimed by him, which appears to be constant, and also some apparent discrep- 

 ancies in its general habits, I believe it is as well entitled to subspecific rank as 

 not a few other now recognized subspecies. The most notable difference of this 

 southern form from other recognized races of this species is the small size and 

 peculiar shape of the bill. Referring to its habits, the Doctor says: "A very 

 common resident in the pine belt, breeding plentifully. I have found it as high 

 as the spruce forests, but never ia them. It is essentially a bird of the pines, 

 only occasionally descending to the cottonwoods of the low valleys. The oaks 

 which are scattered through the lower pine zone supply a large share of its food. 

 Its habit of industriously hoarding food in bark of pines and in all sorts of 

 chinks and hollows is well known. These stores are the source of unending 

 quarrels between this Woodpecker and its numerous pilfering enemies, and I 

 have laid its supplies under contribution myself, when short of provisions and 

 lost from the command with which I had been traveling, by filling my saddle- 

 bags with half-dried acorns from under the loose bark of a dead pine."-^ 



In Mexico it is reported that they store acorns in the dry flower stalks of 

 the yuccas and the maguay. Agave americana, which is generally known as the 

 "mescal plant" in Arizona. 



In the Rogue River Valley, in southwestern Oregon, I found these birds 

 exceedingly abundant in the canyons and foothills along the western slopes of 

 the Cascrode Mountains, and here one could see evidences of then- industry 

 every little while. I have seen the thick bark of large sugar and other pines, 

 as well as partly decayed oak limbs and telegraph poles, completely riddled with 

 small holes. Some trees certainly contained thousands of holes. A section of 

 a partly decayed oak limb now before me, which is 3 feet 2 inches long and 5J 

 inches in diameter, of which only about three-fifths of the surface has been 

 utilized (the remainder having probably been found too solid) contains 255 holes 

 by actual count. These holes are circular, and average about three-quarters of 

 an inch in depth by half an inch in diameter ; each one is intended to hold a 

 single acorn, and they are generally placed from half an inch to an inch apart. 

 The acorns fit these holes pretty accurately, and are apparently always driven 

 in point foremost, the base of the acorn being flush with the surrounding wood and 

 not readily extracted. It seems improbable and almost impossible, for a single 

 pair of these birds to be able to excavate all the holes found in certain favorite 

 trees, and I believe that stores so put away are shared in common by a number 

 of birds living in the vicinity. There is considerable difference in the edible 

 qualities of acorns; some are exceedingly palatable, while others are rather 

 bitter. The Califomian Woodpeckers know this, and. as far as I have been able 

 to detect only select the sweet ones. The supposition that they store only wormy 

 ones, and allow the inhabitant to get fat before eating it, is nonsense ; the meat 



' The Aut, Vol. VII, 1890, pp. 249-254. 



