266 Seeds and Sowers 



scarcely accessible except to winged creatures. 

 Dwarf yews lock their woody roots into crevices 

 of church-towers, and the holly reveals its evergreen 

 foliage in winter on the crown of the pollard ash. 

 But all these chance sowings are excelled in interest 

 by the deliberate operations of the rooks. They 

 have the instinct for hiding food that is developed 

 in their relative the magpie to a passion for con- 

 cealing any attractive object ; and they carry 

 acorns in autumn to a distance of half a mile or 

 more from the oaks, and bury them in the soil. 

 The buried acorns are constantly forgotten, and 

 in due time germinate and give rise to little sapling 

 oaks. More often than not these die before they 

 reach a foot in height; for the bare downs and 

 peaty moors to which the rooks are specially fond 

 of flying with acorns are by no means favourable 

 for the growth of oaks. The crests of many tall 

 downs are seen littered throughout the year with 

 the shreds of autumn acorns ; for, though rooks 

 devour many acorns among the trees, they often 

 carry them to open ground to eat, as well as to bury. 

 So their great cousins, the ravens, choose some bold 

 crag on which to dismember and devour such prey 

 as they can carry away. Rooks will sometimes 

 carry off and bury potatoes in the same way as 

 acorns, and the young plants duly shoot in strange 

 and unpromising situations. Jays, and probably 

 magpies also, have the same trick of hiding fruits 

 and seeds. Although the great majority of these 

 ill-placed plants must perish, a certain proportion 

 belonging to native species are probably established 



