94 USEFUL BIRDS. 
One day I noticed a young pine growing some ten feet 
from the ground in the fork of a maple by the roadside. 
There were no other pines near. What planted it there? 
This was merely an illustration of the fact that tree seeds 
are furnished with transportation by the wings or legs of 
animals that feed upon them. 
The Jays alight in the tree top; each Jay breaks off an 
acorn with his feet, hammers it open with his beak, and eats 
the kernel on the spot, or carries it off to some hiding place, 
Lo eheee oN He, 
facie & 
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Fig. 31.—A forest planter. The Blue Jay lends wings to the acorn. 
sometimes dropping it from the tree or while flying, appar- 
ently by accident or for no purpose except perhaps to hear it 
strike the earth. A sudden fright will cause a bird to drop 
whatever food it may be carrying. Such acorns are usually 
left where they happen to fall. 
We cannot study the relations of birds to the forest with- 
out noting also the important part that squirrels take in tree 
planting. In the autumn of 1897 the mast crop was light in 
some sections of eastern Massachusetts, but here and there 
an oak tree was found which bore a good crop. Such trees 
were soon discovered by the Jays and squirrels, several of 
which might be seen gathering the acorns from each tree. 
The ground squirrels work in pairs, as do the squirrels of 
