14 WOODPECKEKS IN EELATION TO TEEES. 



openings into large cavities unsuited for either nests or shelter. 

 When occupied houses are attacked, the loud calls and racket made 

 by the birds, especially in the early morning, are very annoying to 

 the inmates. 



The California woodpecker (Melanerpes f. bairdi), besides making 

 holes in houses for nests or sleeping quarters, also pecks in cornices 

 a multitude of small holes, wherein acorns are wedged. The bird 

 usually stores the mast in dead limbs of trees, but when acorns abound 

 near buildings it naturally takes advantage of the large exposed sur- 

 face of dead wood as exactly suited to its purposes. This hoarding 

 instinct undoubtedly has for its basis the provision of food for future 

 use, but the woodpeckers store up immense quantities of acorns 

 which they never eat, most of which fall to the lot of the squirrels and 

 jays. 



H. W. Henshaw found the California woodpecker making much 

 use of buildings for storage purposes near Ukiah, Mendocino County, 

 Cal. He was informed that one schoolhouse (PI. IV, fig. 2) was so 

 much injured in a season or two that it was replaced by a new build- 

 ing in preference to making the necessary repairs. 



PREVENTION OF DAMAGE BY WOODPECKERS. 



The prevention of damage by woodpeckers (except sapsuckers) 

 rarely necessitates destruction of the birds. Moreover, woodpeckers 

 are so valuable as conservators of trees that the public should not be 

 deprived of their services. 



It has been claimed that creosote insures telegraph poles against 

 the attacks of woodpeckers, but Mr. Weiss presents evidence to the 

 contrary in the paper previously quoted from (pp. 11-13), and Mr. 

 C. T. Day says concerning results in Sonora: 



Some of the creosoted poles about 9 or 10 inches in diameter have been picked, 

 leaving an outside shell. In two or three instances the linesmen have found the 

 inside of poles entirely eaten away . . . and found birds' nests inside. It is a com- 

 mon expression with the linesmen that the woodpeckers get fat on creosote. We 

 tried spraying with carbolic acid in places where their holes were just begun, but so 

 far we have been unable to notice any difference. We are now substituting a Texas 

 pine pole, burnetized, with a creosoted butt, which is claimed to be so much harder 

 than creosote that birds will have considerable difficulty in getting into it. We have 

 some 200 poles up, but as yet they do not show any marks. 



The results of experiments of this kind will be awaited with inter- 

 est. It will be fortunate, indeed, if some one or other of the preserva- 

 tive treatments which are applied to nearly all poles now being set is 

 found to protect them from woodpeckers. As telegraph poles are 

 usually perforated by woodpeckers for the purpose of securing nesting 

 sites, the providing of nest boxes may prove a comparatively cheap 

 and easy solution of the difficulty. If nest boxes be supplied and 



