96 USEFUL BIRDS. 



had he watched the squirrel, and descended to rob it of its 

 stores ? Who is wise enough to interpret the workings of a 

 Crow's mind ? Who can tell how far its perceptive faculties 

 will serve, or mark the boundary between instinct and reason ? 

 We may say that some creature had been merely storing up 

 food against a season of want, and that may be true, but it is 

 only half the truth. Many of the seeds which are dropped 

 or hidden by birds and squirrels are never found by them 

 again. There is an immense amount of vitality in these 

 animals, which must be expended in some way. When the 

 red squirrel is not eating, sleeping, providing food for itself, 

 or getting into some abominable mischief, it is usually scold- 

 ing or chattering in profane squirrel language at some in- 

 truder, or busy burying something or digging it up. The 

 squirrel makes its journeys back and forth, burying acorns, 

 pine seeds, chestnuts, beech nuts, and hickory nuts in secret 

 places. One day, however, as it is going its accustomed 

 way up the walnut tree, a Hawk swoops down, and the 

 squirrel is no more. That squirrel has stored up a supply 

 of food which it will never gather. As Thoreau says, it has 

 planted "a hickory wood for all creation." That Hawk 

 has protected the planted seed. 



The part ordinarily taken by birds in forest planting is not 

 so conspicuous as that of the squirrels, but it results in a 

 wider distribution of seed. The birds and squirrels destroy 

 a large part of the seed crop, but the trees produce a great 

 surplus, and the wild creatures plant an abundance of good 

 seed which they leave to germinate. Thus it is that the 

 destroyer of the seed disseminates it, and so perpetuates the 

 tree which furnishes him sustenance. 



The Influence exerted by Birds and Squirrels on the Succession of 

 Forest Trees. 



When we cut down an oak or chestnut wood that is com- 

 posed of old and heavy timber, a pine wood is likely to 

 spring up in its place, particularly if there are pines near 

 by ; while if we cut off pines, they are usually succeeded by 

 a wood composed mainly of deciduous trees, mostly hard 

 woods, or the nut-bearing or acorn-bearing kinds. Such a 



