July, 1922 ACTIVITIES OF THE CALIFORNIA WOODPECKER 119 
It is impossible for anybody to understand the character even, to say noth- 
ing of the substance, of the major problems of psycho-biology who knows little 
or nothing about them from the standpoint of what has been apily called the 
““web of life.’’ 
There remains only a few minutes in which to speak on the most interesting 
part of these ‘‘further observations’’—the part, I mean, which has to do with 
what I saw the woodpeckers actually doing. To me, at least, this is the most 
interesting part largely because I had never before seen them ‘‘on the job.’’ My 
desire of long standing for a chance to watch the birds at work was whetted by 
Henshaw’s remark that the varied things done by them ‘‘bear no resemblance 
to work in the ordinary sense of the term, but is play.’’ Perhaps this view in- 
terested me especially because at the time of reading it I had lately been going 
somewhat extensively into the literature of play. 
During the first three days in camp it rained almost constantly and the 
woodpeckers ‘‘laid off’’ completely from harvesting and were seen very little. 
On October 2 it stopped raining about noon, and work was begun promptly and 
vigorously. Three storage trees within easy stone’s throw of our tent gave ample 
opportunity for watching—especially since several oaks well acorn-laden were 
also near by. All the harvesting I saw was from the tree tops directly. In no 
instance did I see nuts picked up from the ground. In fact the birds hardly came 
down to earth at all. 
One of the first things to attract my special attention in connection with 
the birds was the slight attention they paid to me. I found I could sit on a rock 
within a few yards of a storage tree and watch the operations to my heart’s con- 
tent without seeming to be so much as even noticed by the busy bodies. 
HOLE DRILLING 
- will speak first about the pecking business; and a quotation, nearly word 
for word, of one entry in my notes will tell the oe better than I could tell it 
otherwise. 
In two instances particularly birds on side of tree trunk pecked hard for several 
minutes in same spot, apparently at hole-drilling, but too far un tree to permit seeing 
exactly what was being accomplished. One of the two birds almost certainly working 
in a hole, whether old or wholly new I could not be certain. After long pecking this bird 
quit, ran out on near-by branch of tree, pecked a little there, ran back to trunk, hitting 
a few raps in one place then in another. This more or less indeterminate pecking ex- 
tremely characteristic, every bird doing some of it wherever alighting, on trunk, or 
limb, and whether having come to the tree empty-beaked or after having put away its 
acorn. 
The other long-time-pecking-in-the-same-place bird just mentioned finally flew 
away as a third bird came with a nut in its beak. This nut deposited very near to where 
the just-flown bird was pecking. The arrival may have placed its nut in the hole made 
by the other bird, but this uncertain. 
This came as near as anything I saw to supporting the conjecture that the 
birds cooperate so specifically as to make some individuals hole-drillers while 
others are harvesters and storers. Everything else seen—and there was much 
of it—indicated that all workers peck holes and all gather and stow away nuts: 
and that no storer has special holes on the same tree or has any special tree at 
least if several storage-trees are near together. 
