2 Proceedings of the 



trees, into each of which it places an acorn. His informant was his bro- 

 ther, Mr William Murray, whose botanical tastes may be probably known 

 to some of the members of the Society. He resides at San Francisco ; 

 but when home on a visit last year, he mentioned the habit of the wood- 

 pecker which had just been related. Shortly after his return to Califor- 

 nia, he received from him the piece of bored bark, which he exhibited to 

 the Society, and at the same time communicated the following informa- 

 tion which he had picked up. He says,' — " I was talking to Simson the 

 other day about the curious custom the woodpeckers here have of boring 

 holes in the bark and storing them with acorns, when I mentioned that I 

 had told you of it, and that you had refused to credit the fact, not of the 

 acorns being there, but of their being put there by woodpeckers, because 

 I was unable to say I had seen them put there. ' Well, ' said he, ' you 

 can tell him that I've seen them. I have seen them bore the holes, put 

 in the acorns, and hammer them well in, and I've seen them take them 

 out again in spring ;' and he went on to tell me, that, on one occasion, 

 in the time of the great flood (some years ago), he had witnessed an amu- 

 sing scene among them. His party were camped on a kind of island that 

 had been left dry, and having nothing better to do, watched the opera- 

 tions of these birds. There were six or eight of them at work on a tree, 

 in which there was a squirrel, who had made his house in a hollow at the 

 root of a branch. The squirrel would pop out his head and look at them, 

 and the moment the coast was clear, he would run out and scratch away 

 at these things , and tear away the bark ; and when the birds would see 

 him, they would all attack him, and he would run like lightning down 

 the tree, and up the other side, and into his hole again, and then peep 

 out and watch another chance to do the same, evidently having great fun. 

 This continued for about three days, till at last one of the party knoeked 

 the squirrel's head off with a rifle-ball, and rid them of their persecutor." 

 In a subsequent letter, his brother gives the following additional infor- 

 mation. He says — "Newland, a Scotchman, told him he had often seen 

 the woodpecker storing the acorns, and that it was a black bird with a red 

 head ; but Simson, he said, would introduce me to Dr Trask (author of 

 the geological report herewith sent) , and that he would be able to say po- 

 sitively. The Doctor stated that the provident woodpecker is the black 

 one with the red head and yellow throat, that he had observed them re- 

 peatedly, and further asserted that they eat acorns, and that he had seen 

 them do it. In confirmation of the possibility at least of their being ve- 

 getable feeders, Simson tells me that, in the western country, the far- 

 mers frequently clear the woods by cutting the communication of the bark 

 of the trees, and that, where that is done, these red-headed woodpeckers 

 appear in the clearings in perfect swarms, and destroy apples and peaches 

 in these districts to such an extent, that it is impossible to have any fruit. 

 I do not know whether they eat the acorns or the grub that may be in 

 them, but it is most certain that they bore holes in the bark, and hammer 



