July, 1921 . 131 
FROM FIELD AND STUDY 
On the Acorn-storing Habit of Certain Woodpeckers.—In a recent article in the 
Conpor, Dr. William E. Ritter gives an interesting discussion of the habit of the Cali- 
fornia Woodpecker of inserting acorns and sometimes pebbles into small holes drilled 
for their reception in the bark and dead wood of trees. During a two years stay in 
British Honduras the writer had a good opportunity to observe this same curious in- 
stinct in a closely related form, Meianerpes formicivorus albeolus. These extremely 
industrious birds not only store acorns in the same manner as the California Wood- 
pecker, but also deposit them in great quantities in hollow trees and similar places. I 
have seen a hollow pine tree with a cavity six to eight inches in diameter filled for 
‘a distance of nearly twenty feet with acorns dropped into a good sized hole at that 
distance above the ground. Acorn-filled trees of this sort I found not uncommon. Some- 
times an opening at the bottom showed the earlier acorns deposited, completely de- 
cayed and crumbling to dust. They must have been there for several years, and prob: 
ably were not brought by the same birds that completed the accumulation. I often 
saw the woodpeckers bring the acorns and drop them into these “acornaries”’. 
I lived for some time in an old house in which the roof of an upper veranda had 
peen supported by timbers six inches square. These had been injured by termites and 
rendered unsafe, and had then been boxed with heavy boards of the proper width. 
Later thé termites had completed their work of destruction and had almost entirely 
removed the timbers, leaving the hollow boxing. The woodpeckers had made holes 
near the tops of some of these and used them for acorn storage. One that I noted was 
filled for a distance of at least four feet, as could be seen where the boards had sprung 
apart slightly, and possibly much farther. 
In these cases it wouid be utterly impossible for the birds ever to make use of 
the acorns in any way, yet they go on generation after generation laboriously gather- 
ing them. Furthermore, in an even, tropical climate like that of British Honduras, 
where there can be but little variation in food supply from season to season, it is diffi- 
cult to see how, under any circumstances, such a habit could be of any great advantage; 
but even granting that it is so in cases where the accumulation is accessible, these in- 
stances show how an over-delevoped instinct may lead to actions not only useless but 
highly absurd. 
So far as the California Woodpecker is concerned, Dr. Ritter’s conclusions are 
in all probability correct. This suggests the possibility that the Central American bird 
was derived from the more northerly form or from northern ancestry, which acquired 
the instinct under conditions like those now existing in California, and that, as it pushed 
gradually into the tropics, it retained the instinct long after it had ceased to be of any 
utility. Such speculations, however, are of doubtful value—Morton EH. Peck, Willa- 
mette University, Salem, Oregon, June 8S, 1921. . 
The Brown-headed Nuthatch in Oklahoma.—The Brown-headed Nuthatch (Sitla 
pusilla) does not seem to have been heretofore recorded from Oklahoma. On July 5, 
1920, I saw one bird of this species on a southern yellow pine near Cedar Creek in 
Pushmataha County. Although the specimen was not taken, there could be no doubt 
as to its identity since I had ample opportunity to study the bird at close range through 
field glasses; and, moreover, this locality is well within its expected range, as it has 
been found in Texas, Arkansas and Missouri.—MarGaretT M. Nice, Norman, Oklahoma, 
April 7,1921. 
The Water Ouzel in Arizona.—The scarcity of published records of the occur- 
rence of the Dipper, or as I would personally prefer to call it, the Water Ouzel (Cinclus 
mexicanus unicolor), in Arizona seems to make it desirable to add to these records. 
On first coming into southern Arizona 2 few years ago from a locality where I had 
come to know this bird well and to expect it along the tumbling mountain streams, i 
confidently looked for it along the principal permanent stream in the Santa Catalina 
Mountains, but was disappointed. It did not appear to be present either in the lower 
portion of this canyon (Sabino) or along the headwaters and upper stream where the 
eastern brook trout has been successfully introduced, and where conditicns appeared 
