NUTS 295 



But there were three little depredators, the cleverest 

 among them all, with which I played hide-and-seek 

 among the bushes, and watched tneir harvesting. 

 One of these was the saucy red squirrel. He glided 

 along the branches like a sunbeam, and constituted 

 the dark-eyed miracle of the forest. He would 

 watch my approach, then glide up the high hazel 

 and survey me from above. Then he perked his 

 ears and chattered, and once let down a full-ripe 

 filbert close to my feet. On examining this filbert 

 I found how he came at its contents, and often 

 after watched him in the process. He would sit 

 upon his haunches, half-hidden in the foliage, holding 

 a cluster of nuts. These he held in his forepaws, and 

 would presently abstract one, allowing the rest to 

 drop. After adroitly securing the nut, he quickly 

 rasped away the small end, and, having made a 

 hole, inserted his fore teeth and split the shell. He 

 ate only the largest and soundest nuts, and was 

 careful to pare off every particle of the brown skin 

 of the kernel before beginning to eat. The dormouse 

 and field-mouse adopt a somewhat different method of 

 coming at the contents. They gnaw a hole in the 

 shell, though so small that the wonder is how the 

 kernel is ever extracted through it. 



The pretty little nuthatch acts in different fashion 

 to all these. With its bright slaty back, orange 

 breast and black bill, it is quite a handsome bird, 



