FRUITFUL HEDGEROWS 



117 



and several kinds of animals until spring. The bright 

 scarlet tints of the various species of wild rose have a 

 tough rind that preserves them for many weeks or months, 

 if they escape the bullfinches and wood-mice. Hawthorn 

 berries are rather softer, but are hard enough to outlast the 

 winter, and gleam neglected on the boughs of spring, when 

 the winter has been an open one, and the birds are turning 

 to other fare. Yewberries are often devoured early in the 

 autumn by missel-thrushes for the sake of their soft outer 



BLACKBERRY 



pulp ; but after the pulp has decayed, the hard inner seed is 

 searched out all through the winter by the great tit, like the 

 stones of whitebeam-berries and of haws. Thus the same 

 fruit may be sought by some species for its pulp, and by 

 another for the enclosed kernels. Blackbirds devour the 

 softer rose-haws for the red pulp ; but bullfinches and tits 

 seem to open them for the sake of the numerous little 

 kernels enclosed in a hairy core. Redwings and thrushes 

 swallow haws for the sake of the pulp ; but tits crack the 

 stone, and wood-mice pierce it for the sake of the kernel. 

 Many kinds of seeds and small stones can be found in autumn 



