Seed-Carriers 263 



Rooks are always busy in the wild state, and, as the 

 American writer before quoted remarks, on leaving an 

 oak-tree, the bird will often pluck an acorn, which it 

 may carry perhaps five miles ; then, if it alights upon 

 a beech, it will drop the acorn and gather nuts instead, 

 and so on, taking a fresh remembrance away wherever 

 it goes, and sowing seeds innumerable in the course of 

 its life. 



But when the rooks assemble in their hundreds to 

 hold a 'pow-wow' or parliament, then is the time 

 when they do their sowing on a large scale ; for, true 

 to their usual habits, many, if not all, bring and drop 

 something. The place chosen for the assembly is 

 always open, and more or less bare, and afterwards 

 the ground may be seen strewn with walnuts, hickory 

 nuts, acorns, sticks and other rubbish. This, at least, 

 is how rooks behave in America; and a field is 

 mentioned which, after being left to itself for some 

 time, was found to be full of young ' bur-oaks,' there 

 being no parent-tree anywhere near from which the 

 acorns could possibly have been carried, even by a 

 high wind. 



Now, how could these have been planted, save by 

 birds ? Pigs simply crunch up and eat nuts and acorns 

 where they find them ; and though the squirrel some- 

 times carries them several hundred yards, it seldom 

 does more, while the field-mouse certainly does not 

 lay up her winter-store very far from where her crops 

 grow. Besides, neither tree-squirrels nor mice act in 

 concert, and planting on so large a scale must have 

 required a small army to accomplish it. 



No doubt, however, both tree- and ground-squirrels, 

 as well as mice, are responsible for the planting of 



