Omniana/Volume 1/The Carpenter Bird
101. The Carpenter Bird.
Herrera (10.4. 11) describes a curious bird in the province of Chiapa, a sort of turdus which they called the Carpenter. This bird fed solely upon acorns, which it used to hoard in the trunk of the pine trees, boring with its beak a separate hole for every acorn; many trees were full of these holes in the nicest order, and they were so well fitted that the acorn could not be pulled out by the fingers, or otherwise than by some pointed instrument. The bird got them out by standing like a woodpecker with its feet on the trunk. It was black with a little red on the head and breast. This was a troublesome mode of hoarding, but the only secure one, as nothing could get at the hoards.