234 A GAMEKEEPER'S NOTE-BOOK 



supplies of fruit the great majority of the acorns go to 

 support the pensioners, and thousands must be sown if 

 one is to have a chance to develop into a seedling. 

 Squirrels come to feast and hide the acorns as they 

 hide nuts ; the dormice come ; human children come 

 with sacks for the sake of the pigs at home ; pheasants 

 feast on the ground ; rooks, more wary, amid the 

 branches ; hungry jays warn hungry wood-pigeons 

 when the keeper approaches. To the animals, birds, 

 and insects are added the parasite plants, fungi 

 flourishing where a broken branch rots, lichens cover- 

 ing the bark, on the topmost bough the mistletoe. 



Were it not for the oaks there would be scanty winter 

 faring and feasting for many wild creatures. When 

 acorns and hazel-nuts are scarce, and full 

 beech-masts are not plentiful, birds and 

 beasts have an unusually hard struggle to tide over 

 the winter, even should it be mild, as a paucity of nuts 

 is supposed to foretell. Different creatures like their 

 nut food in different conditions and at different times. 

 The rooks in their greed pull the acorns from their 

 cups where they grow, others do not relish them in 

 their fresh green state, and wait until they are ripe and 

 mellow. Pheasants, who are very partial to acorns 

 in autumn and winter, when more delicate faring is 

 not available, prefer to eat them just as they begin to 

 sprout. Like corn and other seeds, acorns wiien 

 sprouting possess a peculiarly attractive sweetness. 



