HABIT OF GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER. 89 
or in repeated short flights at a low elevation. The tree 
reached, however, there would be no possibility* of getting them 
to the top of it, and the Woodpecker would have either to 
abandon its meal, to eat it on the ground, or to make a new niche 
near the base of the tree. In deciding on the latter course it 
would be urged by an already confirmed habit, which, however, 
would not prevent it making more or less use of the natural 
chinks of the bark, improving them by some additional grooving, 
and from this coming gradually to make a mould approximating ~ 
somewhat to the actual shape of the cone. Of course, when the 
bird had once got, in this way, to the thick, chinkey, and com- 
paratively soft bark, its advantages for being thus used would be 
apparent, and one would not expect it, for long, to carry large 
cones to one part of the same tree and small ones to another. 
The object with which the Greater Spotted Woodpecker thus 
inserts fir-cones into niches which hold them is, of course, that 
he may the more conveniently peck down upon them, and thus 
extract their seeds. There is no question of storage—of pro- 
viding food for the winter. The food is all about, and the bird 
feeds, in this way, from the middle of August, according to 
Brehm, to February or later. I last saw it doing so on January 
19th. Therefore, the fact that the Californian Woodpecker— 
which inserts acorns into holes that it makes in the bark of a 
tree in much the same manner—does not do this in order to 
provide food for the winter, inasmuch as it migrates during that 
season, does not strike me as extraordinary. It does so—or, 
at any rate, I have little doubt that it once did—in order to eat 
them conveniently. The strength of the habit has, however, 
increased upon it, so that, instead of using each acorn, as it is 
placed, it yields to a feverish anxiety to place another and 
another—nor is it for any better reason, as I am convinced, 
through watching them, that many birds build several nests in 
quick succession. Most people have felt the difficulty of stop- 
ping from some trivial mechanical work which they may have 
occasion to do, but which there is no need for them to do all at 
once. However banal, the thing, if it be easy, is apt to become a 
pleasure, and there can be little doubt, I think, that the Californian 
Woodpecker experiences a strong and active pleasure in making 
* Or, atleast it would be, I should think, very laborious. 
