120 THE CONDOR Vol. XXIII 
eraph is a part of this tree. Mr. Chalmers said that this tree was almost 
wholly dead when felled. The slab shown in the photograph is dried and 
worm-eaten. Nothing was learned as to the part of the tree from which the 
slab came but it was evidently from the trunk or a large limb. Mr. Chalmers 
thought the tree was a Valley Oak (Quercus lobata), but this is not intended 
as a definite identification. From the number of drilled holes with or with- 
out acorns or almonds in them it was evident that the bark of the tree had 
been extensively used as a storage place both for acorns and almonds. There 
were several large decayed holes in the tree and in these we found both acorns 
and almonds, but they were not fitted into specially drilied cavities. When 
the tree was felled Mr. Chalmers was present and he told me that a pair of 
owls flew out of one of these large holes after the tree had fallen to the 
ground. We learned nothing as to the means by which the acorns and almonds 
were placed in these decayed cavities. The only opened almonds we found 
were from these decayed places. We thought that these almonds had not been 
opened by woodpeckers. 
At point number 2 holes had been drilled in the boards on the west side 
of a large barn and many acorns and a few almonds stored in them. All the 
holes were above the level of the top of the main door. All the drilling had 
been done in boards resting against the larger timbers of the frame. There 
were drillings in the ends of boards where the boards rested against a horizontal 
plate over the doorway and pretty much across the front of the barn along this 
timber and up along the upright timbers as well. No holes were drilled except 
in the outer surface of the boards where the boards rested against the frame. 
We thought that the holes, or most of them, went through the boards and inte 
the timbers of the frame. 
At point number 3 the bark of the whole trunk above a point about twelve 
feet from the ground and most of the bark of the larger limbs had been drilled 
and hundreds if not thousands of acorns and almonds stored. Mr. Chalmers 
expressed the appearance of the bark very well when he said, ‘‘There musi 
be a sack of almonds up there’’. This tree was a living oak and we thought 
it was a Valley Oak. There were more dead limbs on this tree than we found. 
in other similar trees in the vicinity. The tree is very large and must be about 
tive feet through the trunk one foot above the ground. In some of the limbs 
were holes that we thought were the entrances to the nests of woodpeckers 
but we did not see any birds enter or leave them. Acorns and almonds were 
stored in all sides of the tree and in all sides of the larger limbs we could see 
from the ground. We did not go up into the tree to see if nuts had been 
stored in the bark on the upper sides of the limbs. 
This work is assumed to have been done by the California Woodpecker, 
which is a common bird in that country. The acorns were stored in the man- 
ner known to be employed by this bird and there seemed no reason to deny 
it credit for the almonds also. We did not, however, see them doing anything 
in connection with the storage places we found. Nearly all the acorns and 
almonds were inserted in the drilled holes point first but some were fitted in 
natural crevices sidewise. All acorns had been freed from their cups before 
being stored and all the almonds were without hulls. We thought that this 
tree contained about an equal number of almonds and acorns. Every nut was 
fitted in its place too snugly to be easily removed. In most cases the base of 
