20 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



dozen red squirrels. He took out of the tree, which was hollow, 

 one bushel and three pecks by measurement, without the liusks, 

 and they supplied him and his family for the winter. It 

 would be easy to multiply instances of this kind. How com- 

 monly in the fall you see the cheek-pouches of the striped 

 squirrel distended by a quantity of nuts. This species get its 

 scientific name Taniias, or the steward, from its hal)it 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 dispersed far 

 and wide. The ground looks like a platform 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, wlien threading the woods in the fjill, 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, making a 

 sound like a wood pecker's tapping, looking round from time to 

 time to see if any foe is approaching, and soon reach the meat, 

 and nibble at it, holding up their heads to swallow, while they 

 hold the remainder veiy firmly with their claws. Nevertheless, 

 at often drops to the ground before the bird has done with it. 

 I can confirm what William Bertram wrote to Wilson, the 

 Ornithologist, that " The jay is one of the most useful agents 

 in the economy of nature, for disseminating forest trees and 

 other nuciferous and hard-seeded vegetables on which they feed. 

 Their chief employment during the autumnal season is foraging 

 to supply their winter stores. In performing this necessary 

 duty they drop abundance of seed in their flight over fields, 

 hedges, and by fences where they alight to deposit them in the 

 post-holes, etc. It is remarkable what numbers of young trees 

 rise up in fields and pastures after a wet winter and spring. 

 These birds alone are capable, in a few years time, to replant 

 all the cleared lands." 



I have noticed that squirrels also frequently drop their nuts 

 in open land, which will still further account for the oaks and 



