THE CALIFORNIA WOODPECKER. 135 
a musket ball would make, shaped with the most ac- 
curate precision, as if bored under the guidance of a 
rule and compass, and many of them filled most 
neatly with acorns. Earlier in the season I had re- 
marked such holes in most of all the soft timber, but 
imagining that they were caused by wood insects, I 
did not stop to examine or inquire ; but now finding 
them studded with acorns, firmly fixed in, which I 
knew could not have been driven there by the wind, 
I sought for an explanation, which was practically 
given me by Captain S ’s pointing out a flock of 
Woodpeckers, busily and noisily employed in the 
provident task of securing the winter’s provision. 
For it appears that this sagacious bird is not all the 
time thriftlessly engaged in ‘ tapping the hollow 
beech tree’ for the mere idle purpose of empty sound, 
but spends its summer season in picking these holes, 
in which it lays its store of food for the winter, where 
the elements can neither affect nor place it beyond 
their reach • and it is regarded as a sure omen that 
the snowy period is approaching, when these birds 
commence stowing away their acorns, which other- 
wise might be covered by its fall. I have frequently 
paused from my chopping, to watch them in the 
neighborhood, with the acorns in their bills, half 
clawing, half flying around the tree, and have ad- 
mired the adroitness with which they tried it at dif- 
ferent holes until they found one of its exact calibre, 
when, inserting the pointed end, they tapped it home 
most artistically with the beak, and flew down for 
another. 
