July, 1922 109 
FURTHER OBSERVATIONS ON THE ACTIVITIES OF THE 
CALIFORNIA WOODPECKER 
By WILLIAM E. RITTER 
URING the year that has passed since my former communication (Condor, 
xxi, 1921, pp. 3-14) to the Cooper Club on the food habits of California’s 
widely known woodpecker (Melanerpes formiciworus baird1) quite a num- 
ber of new facts have come to light concerning the economics and general ways 
of the bird. Some of these have come from other workers and some from my 
own efforts. The facts and conclusions by others have reached me partly 
through publications and partly through private correspondence; and I gladly 
take this opportunity for testifying to the scientific usefulness and personal sat- 
isfaction there is in such helpful response as my published communication 
brought. 
I may as well mention right here the publications and the correspondence 
that have furnished facts and ideas upon which I now draw. Three articles in 
THE Conpor for July-August, 1921, contain items later to be referred to. These 
are: ‘‘The Storage of Acorns by the California Woodpecker’’, by Henry W. Hen- 
shaw; ‘‘The Storage of Almonds by the California Woodpecker’’, by Claude 
Gignoux ; and ‘‘On the Acorn-storing Habit of Certain Woodpeckers’’, by Mor- 
ton E. Peck. Then an important paper, which should have been cited in my 
previous paper, is: ‘‘ Food of the Woodpeckers of the United States’’, by F. E. L. 
Beal (Biological Survey, U. 8S. Dept. Agric. Bulletin no. 37, May 24, 1911). The 
correspondents whose letters contain information that will be utilized, are Mr. 
John McB. Robertson of Buena Park, California, and Mr. A. B. Howell, Pasa- 
dena, California. 
My own observations made since the former communication pertain to the 
Same region, that of which Cuyamaca Mountain is the center, and which is the 
locus of this entire series of studies. Short visits were made to the locality on 
August 27-28, and November 19-20, 1921. And seven days were spent in camp 
among the woodpeckers, at Cuyamaca Lake, September 28 to October 6, 1921. 
As this period was timed for the acorn harvest by the birds, it yielded some of 
the freshest, most interesting observations it has yet been my privilege to make. 
Before passing to the subject matter prover, it is desirable, I think, to be a 
trifle more specific than I was on my former avpearance before the Club. as to 
the wherefore of these studies. Abiding and lively as is my general interest in 
bird life, and, for that matter, in all ont-of-door natural history, I fear I should 
not have given as much time and effort to these woodpeckers as I have but for 
my belief that doing so would bring light nyen a question that has loomed large 
in my mind of late years. 
In my earlier paper J went no farther toward stating this question than to 
remark that it concerns the efficiency of instinctive activity, and so belongs to 
the vast and vital province of adaptation. Concerning such activities I asked, 
““How near to perfection is their adaptation?’’? The further formulation of the 
question which it now seems best to make, may as well start from the specific 
statement of it. 
The very idea itself, of adaptation, implies, you notice, degrees. To adapt 
