COAL-TITS AND FIR-CONES 19 



visible upon the surface thus exposed, this, again, 

 looked more as if the scale aforesaid had been seized 

 with a pincers — the bird's beak — and torn off, than 

 as though it had been cut away with a chisel — the 

 squirrel's teeth — for, in this latter case, the plate 

 beneath would, in all probability, have been cut into, 

 too, at some point, and not left in its natural smooth 

 state. Another two of these cones consisted of the 

 bases only, and from their appearance and the debris 

 around them, seemed to have been pecked and torn, 

 rather than gnawed to pieces. In five out of the 

 six, the extreme base — that part from the centre of 

 which the stalk springs — had been left untouched. 

 In the sixth, however, this had been attacked, and 

 presented a rough, hacked, punctured appearance, 

 the stalk itself — represented by just a point — having 

 apparently been pecked through, suggesting strongly 

 that the tits had commenced work while the cone 

 hung on the tree, and had severed it in this way. 

 All round the basal circle the scales had been 

 stripped off, and the exposed surface was smooth 

 and unexcoriated — as in the other instance — except 

 where a portion of it seemed to have been torn, not 

 cut, away. Two seed-cavities were exposed and 

 empty. It certainly looked as though these cones 

 had been hacked and pulled to pieces by the tits, 

 and not gnawed by squirrels, so as this agreed with 

 the absence of the latter, and what I had actually 

 seen the bird doing, I came to the conclusion that 

 they had been. Perhaps there is nothing very 

 wonderful in it after all, but, looking at a fir-cone, 

 I should have thought it clean beyond the strength 

 of a coal-tit to tear it to pieces. But what, now, is 



B 



