July, 1921 STORAGE OF ALMONDS BY THE CALIFORNIA WOODPECKER 119 
a Slab of which he kept and handed to me on the day of our hunt for stored 
almonds. This slab is 16 inches long, 5 inches wide at one end and 7 inches 
wide at the other. It has been delivered to the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology 
in Berkeley. The photograph of a portion of this piece gives a clear idea of 
just how the original appears (see fig. 23). The tree from which it was taken 
had been cut down, sawed into firewood lengths, and split up by a machine. 
The pieces were then thrown into a pile and ranked in tiers. In this process 
each piece of wood had been subjected to a great deal of rough handling and 
it is Surprising that any of the nuts remained in the bark. 
We found almonds stored at three places: (1) In the bark of the oak tree 
mentioned; (2) in the side of a rather old barn; and (3) in the bark of a 
Fig. 25. PoRTION OF SLAB FROM VALLEY OAK SHOWING ALMONDS AND ACORNS IN 
PITS, THE WORK OF CALIFORNIA WOODPECKERS IN BuTTE CouNTY, CALIFORNIA. 
living, standing oak. There were within an area of perhaps ten or a dozen 
acres about fifteen large standing oaks, five or six recently felled oaks and 
several farm buildings, some of which were quite old. A crew of men was 
cutting up one of the trees and ranking the wood up in tiers. 
At point number 1 the tree had been cut down close to the ground and 
completely cut up in firewood lengths and these ranked in tiers. We found 
several pieces, in the bark of which acorns and almonds had been stored or in 
which holes had been drilled for acorns or almonds. The slab in the photo- 
