86 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
There were other examples of this interesting habit, but 
these must suffice. There was nothing in any of them quite like 
what I had seen on the other island, about a quarter of a mile 
off. In no case, there, could I see signs of the Scotch fir-cones 
having been eaten. Going again to this island, I could not find 
that any change had taken place in the disposition of the cones, 
&c., at the two principal depots, but with a view to testing this 
another time, I placed two, each in a groove, above the larger 
heap, to see if they would be moved, and rowed on to the next 
island, some ten or fifteen minutes away. Here, however, with 
the exception of some half a dozen quite small spruces, there 
were Scotch firs only, and accordingly I found no example of the 
cones of the former tree having been brought to them. All 
about I found trees marked in the way I have described—there 
is no need further to particularise—and in several of these cones 
were so tightly stuck that they offered a sharp resistance to 
being pulled out. They were at various heights, generally above 
two, and in one case nearly four, feet from the ground. No 
heaps. When the niche was not oval, or nearly oval, the apex 
or narrow end of it pointed down. The conditions on two other 
closely adjacent islands being the same, I did not land upon 
them. 
Some days afterwards I found the two cones which had been 
placed by me in their niches exactly as I had left them. This, 
with various other indications, assures me that the present time 
of the year is not that at which the Woodpecker which makes 
these clefts and brings the cones to them occupies itself in this 
manner. 
May 2nd.—Towards evening I rowed to the nearest island to 
get a specimen of these clefts made by Woodpeckers in the bark 
of the Scotch fir, with cones of the tree fixed in it. I found one, 
but also noticed another, in which a perfectly new-looking 
spruce-cone was fixed, projecting and upright—a most eye- 
catching object. How I can have missed it before, the island 
being small and thinly grown, I hardly know; but I have no 
reason to think that the birds are now at work in this way. 
May 5th.— The other day I examined the Woodpecker’s 
excrements which I had found on one of the islands, under the 
circumstances described, with a Codington lens. After some 
