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. 



