NUTS AND NUTTING. 235 



live almost entirely upon cob-nuts, and manage to 

 outwit the hazels by getting at tliem through the 

 open end as tliey grow upon the boughs. Very 

 often the cunning creatures remove the whole 

 inside of the nut without loosening it at all from 

 the husky envelope. 



The nuthatch, that most persistent of British 

 birds, is also a great foe to the peace of mind of 

 the filbert-tree. Hazels and nuthatches, in fact, 

 may be regarded as pre-established enemies, lil^e 

 rabbits and ferrets, or hawks and sparrows. But 

 a far more dreaded creature than any of these to 

 the filbert is the common nut-grub, who makes 

 his attack in a more insidious manner, entering 

 the nut as an egg while it is yet green and soft, 

 and slowly eating out its centre before it has 

 time to arrive at weeks of maturity. It is partly 

 as a protection against the nut-grub and his in- 

 trusive mother, no doubt, that the hazel has armed 

 its young nuts with the jagged covering and the 

 close armor of defensive hairs. 



It is just the same with all our other British 

 nuts; they are each protected in like manner 

 against the probable depredations of their most 

 indefatigable hereditary foes. The prickly outer 

 rind of the chestnut, for example, enclosing the 

 brown nuts in its green coat, serves to keep off 

 the squirrels to some extent — at least, so far as 

 to allow the tree to seed sufficiently. The beech 



