NOTES FROM THE PRAIRIE 91 



native mice. She saw a jay fly to the ground with 

 what proved to be a peanut in its beak, and care- 

 fully cover it up with leaves and grass. "The next 

 fall, looking out of my own window, I saw two jays 

 hiding chestnuts with the same blind instinct. They 

 brought them from a near tree, and covered them up 

 in the grass, putting but one in a place. Subse- 

 quently, in another locality, I saw jays similarly em- 

 ployed. It appears to be simply the crow instinct 

 to steal, or to carry away and hide any superfluous 

 morsel of food." The jays were really planting 

 chestnuts instead of hoarding them. There was no 

 possibility of such supplies being available in winter, 

 and in spring a young tree might spring from each 

 nut. This fact doubtless furnishes a key to the 

 problem why a forest of pine is usually succeeded by 

 a forest of oak. The acorns are planted by the jays. 

 Their instinct for hiding things prompts them to 

 seek the more dark and secluded pine woods with 

 their booty, and the thick layer of needles furnishes 

 an admirable material with which to cover the nut. 

 The germ sprouts and remains a low slender shoot 

 for years, or until the pine woods are cut away, when 

 it rapidly becomes a tree. 



My correspondent thinks the birds possess some 

 of the frailties of human beings ; among other things, 

 ficklemindedness. "I believe they build nests just 

 for the fun of it, to pass away the time, to have 

 something to chatter about and dispute over." (I 

 myself have seen a robin play at nest-building late 

 in October, and have seen two young bluebirds en- 



