CEDAR BIRDS AND BERRIES 19 



filling their gullets with ten or a dozen berries and 

 carrying them to the eager nestlings. 



Thus is made plain the why and the wherefore 

 of the coloured skin, the edible flesh, and the hid- 

 den stone of the fruit. The conspicuous racemes 

 of the choke-cherries, or the shining scarlet globes 

 of the cultivated fruit, fairly shout aloud to the 

 birds "Come and eat us, we're as good as we 

 look!" But Mother Nature looks on and laughs 

 to herself. Thistle seeds are blown to the land's 

 end by the wind; the heavier ticks and burrs are 

 carried far and wide upon the furry coats of pass- 

 ing creatures ; but the cherry could not spread its 

 progeny beyond a branch's length, were it not for 

 the ministrations of birds. With birds, as with 

 some other bipeds, the shortest way to the heart 

 is through the stomach, and a choke-cherry tree 

 in full blaze of fruit is always a natural aviary. 

 "Where a cedar bird has built its nest, there look 

 some day to see a group of cherry trees; where 

 convenient fence-perches along the roadside lead 

 past cedar groves, there hope before long to see 

 a bird-planted avenue of cedars. And so the mar- 

 vels of Nature go on evolving, wheels within 

 wheels. 



