40 THE ATG DLULBiO NY BU Leieis aie 
least tap had been 
made on the house 
itself. My curiosity 
becoming further 
aroused I secured a 
ladder and found on 
investigation bits of 
oak bark and acorns 
pushed through the 
small entrance. From 
this time on we gave 
the feathered beauty 
considerable  atten- 
tion and found he 
———— was filling both hous- 
es and had the openings sealed with grass and mud. He stayed 
with us the entire winter coming often to sit upon the porch of 
the wren houses bathed in the winter’s sun, but made no attempt 
to disturb his treasure, probably due to the fact that the winter 
was an open one and very little snow and to the fact that we 
provided a feeding place for such as desired to partake. This 
spring when Mr. Woodpecker seemed to have forgotten his treas- 
ure house and it was time to prepare for possible tenants I took 
down both houses, after photographing them in position, and 
found store or food provided by the bird. The contents of each 
house weighed a trifle over 12%, ounces and contained 201 and 
203 pieces of bark and acorns respectively, the acorns being 
quite dry due to the bark. Many folks to whom we related 
the incidents said it was the work of a squirrel but eye witnesses 
of several of the family easily disproved this as we would from 
time to time see Mr. Woodpecker bring some of his treasure 
and put it into the house then perched there continue pecking 
and hammering away until he had by repeated trips completely 
filled the houses as I discovered upon opening them in the spring. 
I gave one of the 
houses to the Boy 
Boy Scouts Head- 
quarters of this city 
for its bird exhibit 
and still retain the 
other although it 
has made several 
trips to various 
school rooms as an 
interesting lesson 
to the children of 
the provision the 
bird makes for an 
emergency (its 
thrift being in the 









