30 The Romance of Wild Flowers 
and breaking them open, shakes out the hairy fruits, 
which are afterwards stealthily slipped down the 
back of a chum, who is thereby rendered miserable 
for a whole day. This, however, is not the end the 
plant had in view in painting and polishing its 
fruit so well. Its real object was to attract 
birds. Birds appear to be most partial to red 
and black among colours; and we shall find 
that most of the plants which depend upon 
birds for the dispersal of their seeds adopt one 
or other of these colours. These Rose-hips 
are red, but the Sloe, which we shall mention Rose 
soon, is black, the different hues, no doubt, ““"* 
being appreciated by different races. of birds. It 
will be understood, that if the seeds of the Rose 
dropped to the ground around the parent bush, 
there would soon be such keen competition 
among members of the same species for light, air, 
“= and mineral food, that all would suffer, 
and perhaps die; so it is to the interest 
alike of the individual and the species 
that the seeds should be scattered as 
widely as possible. 
The seeds, 1t will be remembered, are 
encased in their carpels, or true fruits, which 
form a kind of nut-shell around them. 
Some of the smaller birds peck off the soft 
ripe flesh of the hips, merely scattering the 
ye contained fruits, some of which, no doubt, are 
7 dispersed further a-field by the investing hairs 
‘ 4 ion of CUging to the plumageof the bird. But it is pro- 
Hip _ bable that birds like the jay, magpie, hawfinch, 
blackbird, and thrush swallow the hips whole, the fruits 
