THE BIRCH HARVEST 



By W. M, Buswell. 



T"\ 7"HILE walking" through the forest in late fall or winter, 

 one ma}' often notice that in many places the snow is 

 thickly covered with small winged seeds and four-pointed scales 

 from some nearby tree. If we happen to be familiar with the 

 trees of our northern forests, we recognize these as the seeds 

 and scales of the birch. Few, however, would know which of 

 the four common species of birch had showered the white forest 

 carpet with its fruits, for the trees from which they come are 

 often many rods away and seemingly invisible. 



I suspect the birds are responsible for many of these birch 

 showers, for the fruit remains on the trees for some time and 

 the birds probably know that such crops, like grain crops, 

 should be harvested before falling to the ground. Since the 

 fruiting branches of the birch are usually out of reach from 

 the ground, it would be a considerable task to collect fruit from 

 the tree, though the birds find it easy and many of them are 

 fond of the seeds. While sitting under some white birches one 

 day in October, a large flock of goldfinches were busy stripping 

 the cones to get the seed, and so fast did they work that the con- 

 tinuous shower of loosened scales sounded like rain as they 

 dropped on the leaves under the trees. 



We often hear these birch scales compared to flying birds, 

 yet there is only one species with truly bird-like scales. The 

 scales of the small gray birch ( Betula papidifolia) do resemble 

 a flying bird, as the illustration will show. The scales of the 



