58 LOCH C RERAN. 



themselves, or need for sand and similar matter to 

 counteract their ordinary fushionless diet. Our friend 

 suggests that the birds as a community are just now 

 flying to such great distances ; to Lismore, the tops of 

 the hills, and the further shores of Linnhe, for crow- 

 berries, that they are tired out, and are glad of days of 

 occasional quiet, when they haunt one particular spot, 

 apparently doing nothing, and not even saying much. 

 We have seen them on occasions when we could not 

 thus explain their lethargy or indolence, and no doubt a 

 rook's mind is more complicated than we are generally 

 willing to allow. 



The horse chestnut trees are now well laden with fruit, 

 and we are a little careful when passing under them, as 

 the nuts dropping from a high tree top give no trifling 

 knock to any civilised head. The crop is exceptionally 

 good, and we lazily pick up some of the large thorny 

 articles, and cut through the thick rind to the inner 

 kernels, still white and bean-like amid their matrix. 

 Why is the nut of this tree covered with prickles, we ask 

 ourselves, as we thrust the jaggy little ball into the hand 

 of the astonished youngster who demanded it ? That 

 there is some good practical reason for them we do not 

 doubt, but what is it ? If the tough, thick rind were to 

 remain closed until it was decayed, and thus throw free 

 the inner kernels, we could understand the prickles were 

 to prevent it rolling away, and so obliging it to lie and 

 rot amid the decaying herbage. But when ripe the stout 

 husk opens and permits the escape of the kernels, so we 

 must suppose some other reason. Perhaps they saved 

 the nuts from persecution by some horse-chestnut eating 

 animal until the escape of the kernels to the ground gave 

 some of them a chance of taking root. Indeed the 



