UTILITY OF BIRDS IN WOODLANDS. 97 



succession of trees has long been considered by farmers to 

 be the rule. In other words, in some way there often comes 

 rotation of crops when wood lots are cut off. This is be- 

 lieved by some people to be due to the springing up of seed 

 which has been buried in the ground for many years. When 

 an oak wood springs up where a pine wood has been cut 

 away, there is no doubt that it has sprung from seed in the 

 ground; probably, however, it has not come from seed which 

 has been buried for many years, but from seed sown by 

 birds and squirrels within a few years, and which has been 

 given a new lease of life by the sun's rays let in by the 

 removal of the dense foliage from above. All through the 

 autumn months, when nuts and acorns are plentiful, Jays, 

 Crows, and squirrels are gathering and storing away the seed 

 among the pines, where they resort for shelter. 



Thousands of Crows will roost in a pine wood for months 

 during the winter, when the leaves are off the deciduous 

 trees. The pines then offer the best hiding places for all 

 woodland creatures. In some of the large Crow roosts among 

 the pines extensive deposits of various seeds and other mate- 

 rial ejected by Crows are found. When a pine wood is sur- 

 rounded by oak and nut trees, when squirrels and Jays 

 are plentiful, and the trees bear well, quantities of acorns 

 and nuts will be carried into the pine wood by these crea- 

 tures and buried beneath the dead " needles" or hidden away 

 in crevices. Many of these nuts and acorns are dug up 

 during the winter months, especially by the red squirrel, 

 but many others are never found. 



Note an opening in the pines made by cutting away a few 

 trees. Here young oaks spring up, and we find oaks and 

 walnuts in such openings quite as often as we find pines. 

 Examine the ground under the pines in summer, and you 

 may find many little oak, walnut, and maple trees coming 

 up from beneath the pine needles, and you will also find 

 young pines here and there. All these young trees soon die 

 in the dense shade of the larger pines. 1 But let the pine 



1 If the lot is not favorably situated, if the woods are very dense, if birds and 

 squirrels are not plentiful, and, above all, if the crop of mast has been light the 

 year before, there may be no young walnuts and oaks springing up. 



