STORING FOR HARD TIMES 



convincing instances of storing until we come to 

 birds and mammals. Apart from the numerous 

 birds that store food in their crops, sometimes so 

 exuberantly that they cannot fly, there are some 

 that may be said to lay up nutritive savings outside 

 of themselves. The large eagle owl, which occa- 

 sionally visits Britain, often gathers a huge quantity 

 of food (including hares and rabbits, poultry and 

 pigeons) for his mate and offspring ; and peasants 

 have been known to utilize him as Elijah his ravens. 

 There is an old tale that ptarmigan make stores of 

 buds and berries beneath the snow, but there is no 

 doubt that at least two species of woodpeckers store 

 acorns, sticking them firmly into holes which are 

 bored " for the purpose " in the tree stems. This 

 is all the more interesting if it be true that what the 

 woodpeckers really eat is not the acorn but a kind 

 of grub that develops inside it. 



Not a few mammals are in the habit of hiding 

 away surplus food, and it is easy to imagine how 

 this might lead on to a more definite storing instinct 

 such as squirrels show. In a number of different 

 hoards the squirrel hides hazel-nuts, beech-nuts, and 

 acorns, and these may be a stand-by in the hard 

 times of winter when the beautiful creature, who 

 is not a true winter-sleeper, is unable to sleep away 

 its hunger, or when the young ones, who remain for 

 a long time in the company of their parents, plead for 

 food. In some mild parts of the country the 

 squirrel's storing instinct seems to remain unde- 

 veloped. There are other mammals, such as the 

 marmots, who make their burrows comfortable with 



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