July, 1922 ACTIVITIES OF THE CALIFORNIA WOODPECKER 111 
much more adaptive, are animals by way of their activities than by way of the: 
organs which perform the activities that one is led to conjecture some deeper 
relation between structure, activity and adaptation, than our rather easy-going 
evolutional philosophy usually recognizes. 
-- But woodpeckers and not philosophy is our subject now. It is hoped, how- 
ever, that these remarks will light up somewhat the background of further ob- 
servations on the particular way in which these birds solve their problem of ex- 
-istence and the degree of success they achieve. 
I will present the new observations under three captions. (1) Those which 
necessitate some modification of conclusions suggested by my former communi- 
eation. (2) Those which confirm and extend previous conclusions. (3) Those 
which bring grist that is entirely new to the scientific mill, so far as these stu- 
dies are concerned. 
(1) My previous surmise that the birds are more ianereened in the grubs 
contained in the acorns than in the acorn meats has not been substantiated. What 
I could make out while in camp among them, by watching them gather and eat 
their breakfasts, was to the effect that good, uninhabited acorns were chiefly 
used. Again and again birds were seen to pick nuts from the top-most branches 
of the black oak, fly with them in their beaks to some approximately horizontal 
surface of a large limb on a pine or another oak, make the surface aid them some- 
how (I never could see exactly how, as the ‘‘breakfast tables’’ were, of course, 
all on the upper surfaces of the limbs, and too high for my vision) in breaking 
and tearing open the nuts. Apparently cracks and chinks in the table top serve 
as holders for the acorns while they are being opened and eaten. This is indi- 
cated by the fact that dead and partly decayed trees or parts of trees were mostly 
used. I saw no indication of the feet being used in handling the nuts. 
The litter on the ground under the dining trees, consisting of shel! frag- 
ments and lost bits of meat, indicated grubless nuts almost entirely. This result 
as to the use of mast is in agreement with Beal’s examination of the stomach 
contents of our woodpecker; with which, as previously mentioned, I was not 
acquainted when my former paper was niin: 
But these observations should not be taken to prove that acorn ‘grubs are 
never eaten. They undoubtedly are to a large extent. How far the one kind of 
food or the other or both are used and under what circumstances, is the only 
question. And, be it noted, the question is one upon which field data enough for 
statistical treatment could undoubtedly be gathered were one to set about it seri- 
ously. 
Another of my earlier surmises not confirmed when the opportunity came 
to watch the birds at work, was that the stored acorns were mostly picked up 
from the ground. In no instance did I see nuts thus gathered, while I did see 
great numbers taken from the trees. But here again this by no means proves 
that gathering from the ground never occurs. The indications of such gather- 
ing given in my former paper still stand and the possibility of both being used 
accords with the general ability the birds have of accomplishing the same ends 
by different means. 
In my previous report I stated that I had never seen living oaks used as 
store houses. This no longer holds. Some of the large Live Oaks in the vicinity 
of Oakzanita on the road from Descanso to Cuyamaca are largely thus used. The 
significant point in this is that where no pines (or cedars, for these are used to 
