THE SUCCESSION OF FOREST TREES. 47 



meet with one that has not a nut in its mouth, or is 

 not just going to get one. One squirrel-hunter of 

 this town told me that he knew of a walnut-tree which 

 bore particularly good nuts, but that on going to 

 gather them one fall, he found that he had been an 

 ticipated by a family of a dozen red squirrels. He 

 took out of the tree, which was hollow, one bushel 

 and three pecks by measurement, without the husks, 

 and they supplied him and his family for the winter. 

 It would be easy to multiply instances of this kind. 

 How commonly in the fall you see the cheek-pouches 

 of the striped squirrel distended by a quantity of 

 nuts ! This species gets its scientific name Tamias, 

 or the steward, from its habit of storing up nuts and 

 other seeds. Look under a nut-tree a month after the 

 nuts have fallen, and see what proportion of sound 

 nuts to the abortive ones and shells you will find 

 ordinarily. They have been already eaten, or dis 

 persed far and wide. The ground looks like the plat 

 form before a grocery, where the gossips of the village 

 sit to crack nuts and less savory jokes. You have 

 come, you would say, after the feast was over, and 

 are presented with the shells only. 



Occasionally, when threading the woods in the fall, 

 you will hear a sound as if some one had broken a 

 twig, and, looking up, see a jay pecking at an acorn, 

 or you will see a flock of them at once about it, in 

 the top of an oak, and hear them break them off. 

 They then fly to a suitable limb, and placing the 

 acorn under one foot, hammer away at it busily, mak 

 ing a sound like a woodpecker s tapping, looking 

 round from time to time to see if any foe is approach 

 ing, and soon reach the meat, and nibble at it, hold 

 ing up their heads to swallow, while they hold the 



