6 THE CONDOR Vol. XXIII 
in speaking of later visits, I will call it storage-tree A. Examination of the 
acorns in this and other trees of the locality yielded the following results that 
seemed significant. 
Almost certainly a very great proportion of all the nuts were of the crop 
of the preceding year, 1918, and were garnered in the fall of that year. This 
conclusion I am able to draw now from observations made then and since. The 
evidence is in the state of weathering of the exposed butt ends of the acorns. 
Almost without exception the nuts are inserted tip in and base out, most of 
them fitting the hole snugly. Although I have never been so fortunate as to 
see the work done, residents of this locality with whom I have talked say that 
the birds ‘‘hammer the acorns in good and hard.’’ The tight fit of many, 
though not all, of the nuts is in keeping with this statement. 
The other fact which enables me to know now the age and storage time 
of the acorns examined in July, 1919, comes from my observations this, 1920, 
autumn. On visiting the trees October 18 and 19 this year, I found that prac- 
tically the entire acorn crop of the season had either dropped to the ground, 
where the nuts were abundant under many trees, or had been gathered by the 
birds, squirrels, ete. Very few indeed were found on the trees. By comparing 
the condition of these new acorns with that of those taken from the storage 
trees in July, 1919, and that of those which had lain on the ground over a 
winter, it became clear that, as already said, the nuts examined in July were 
stored during the early fall of the year before, that is, of 1918. 
The other significant fact brought out by the July examination was the 
prevailing freedom of the nuts from ‘‘worminess’’ and their generally excel- 
lent state of preservation. Few indeed of the many nuts opened contained 
either eggs or grubs of the nut weevil which typically infests the acorns of 
this region. The significant thing about this fact is that, taken along with 
the known developmental career of these weevils, we are able to see clearly 
that if the birds were going to utilize this year’s stores for food, not grubs 
but the meats of perfectly good acorns would almost certainly have to be eaten. 
This would not be in accordance with a widely held theory as to what the 
acorns are stored for. According to this theory it is grubs and not acorn 
meats that the birds want. The conclusion my observations lead to, on this 
point, will be given presently. 
February 8, 1920, was the date of my next visit to the trees, this time in 
company with Professor C. Judson Herrick of the University of Chicago. That 
the acorn stores were being drawn upon by the birds for food, was the most 
striking fact which met our view, as we came to the storage trees one after 
another. Although we were not fortunate enough to catch any of the birds in 
the act, what they had been doing was clear enough, speaking generally, by 
the marks they left, especially around some of the trees. These marks con- 
sisted of quantities of litter on the ground around the bases of the trees, this 
consisting of acorn shells and bits of bark from the trees. Examination of the 
shells told much of the story of woodpecker dining methods when acorns are 
the chief food. That it is at least very common for the nuts to be taken whole 
from the storage places and opened either on the ground near the tree or in 
the branches of the same tree, is manifest from the numerous instances in 
which the nuts were opened on the side, the opening frequently being relatively 
small and quite regular of outline. Such openings could not, of course, be 
made while the nuts are close-fitted into the storage holes. But even when 
