1 66 THE EVOLUTIONIST AT I^IRGE. 



tion from the teeth or bills of the growing 

 and pressing population of rodents and birds. 

 The nut which best survives on the average 

 is that which is least conspicuous in colour, 

 has a rind of the most objectionable taste, 

 and is enclosed in the most solid shell. But 

 the extent to which such precautions become 

 necessary will depend much upon the par- 

 ticular animals to whose attacks the nuts of 

 each country are exposed. The European 

 walnut has only to defy a few small wood- 

 land animals, who are sufficiently deterred by- 

 its acrid husk ; the American butter-nut has 

 to withstand the long teeth of much more 

 formidable forestine rodents, whom it sets at 

 nought with its stony and wrinkled shell ; 

 and the tropical cocos and Brazil nuts have 

 to escape the monkey, who pounds them 

 with stones, or flings them with all his might 

 from the tree-top so as to smash them in 

 their fall against the ground below. 



Our own hazel-nut supplies an excellent 

 illustration of the general tactics adopted 



