AMATEUR PHOTO BY J. E. TAYLOR. 



ME AND YOU. 

 Winner of 28th prize in Recreation's 4th Annual Photo Competition. Taken with Eastman No. 4 Senior Kodak 



A WOODPECKER'S WORM RANCH. 



I took the accompanying photo during 

 a recent trip into Napa valley, in this 

 State. It shows what can be done by an 

 industrious and provident woodpecker in 



the way of 

 storinga 

 sup ply of 

 food. The 

 section o f 

 an oak tree 

 shown, up- 

 side down, 

 is 4 feet 

 high, 34 

 inches in 

 d i a m e t er 

 across the 

 widest end, 

 and 20 inch- 

 es across 

 the other. 

 Al t h ough 

 the tree was 

 dead when 

 cut down, 



a hole drilled 

 receive it. A 

 the area thus 

 are about 4,- 

 surface. which 

 acorn to every 



the trunk is solid throughout. Its surface 

 is set with 1,960 acorns, of various sizes, 

 each fitted snugly into 

 by the woodpecker to 

 close measurement of 

 perforated shows there 

 300 square inches of 

 gives room for one 

 2 square inches. Each acorn is fitted 

 into its cell base foremost, with the top of 

 the acorn flush with the surface of the 

 wood. The acorns vary greatly in size, 

 yet each fits the cell in which it is packed. 

 This gives rise to a question as to whether 

 the woodpecker shapes a cell and then se- 

 lects an acorn to fill it, or gauges the 

 acorn first and digs out a cell in accord- 

 ance with its size. The bird stores the 

 acorn in this manner not for food, but to 

 secure the grub, the egg of which can al- 

 ways be found in every acorn thus stored 

 away. The cunning bird knows that in 

 time the grub will wax fat on the meat of 

 the acorn, and then pay for the snug stor- 

 age of its larder by being drawn by the 

 barbed tongue of the watchful wood- 

 pecker and swallowed with infinite relish. 

 F. L. Clarke, San Francisco, Cal. 



95 



