230 WOODLAND CREATURES 



are plentiful in the autumn you may often see 

 one at work. It comes running down a tree 

 trunk with a nut in its mouth, jumps on to the 

 ground, where it hops to and fro for a moment, 

 then pauses suddenly, scratches hastily with its 

 fore-paws, drops the nut into the shallow hole 

 thus made, and as hastily covers it up again, 

 all the time wearing a fugitive and guilty air, 

 as if it is afraid of being caught in the act. It 

 then scampers off, but comes across an acorn 

 on the way, which is there and then hidden on 

 the spot where it was found, after which it leaps 

 into a nut bush, only to descend in a moment 

 or two with another, which is buried under 

 the bush. Numbers of nuts and acorns are 

 treated in this way, and, as said before, some 

 of them are recovered when, in the midst of the 

 winter, food runs short, for then the squirrels 

 come down and hunt industriously among the 

 mass of dead leaves that lie so thick beneath the 

 trees ; but others are never found, and many 

 a nut bush, and many a great oak, owes its 

 existence to the nut or acorn having been planted 

 by a squirrel. Pheasants too, foraging among 

 the moss, fern, and leaves, bring to light many 

 that were buried ; in short, it is but a tithe 

 of the nuts that were buried in the autumn 

 which the squirrel eats, and even then it 

 probably consumes its neighbours' nuts and not 

 its own ! 



At first sight it seems as if this habit of the 

 squirrel can be of little use to it ; however, as 



