UTILITY OF BIRDS IN WOODLANDS. 95 
the Pacific coast, one climbing the tree and throwing the 
acorns down to the other. 
Jays, Crows, and squirrels seem to have a mania for distrib- 
uting and hiding things. I recall an old shellbark hickory 
by a farmhouse-door, the crevices of its ragged bark orna- 
mented with walnuts, tucked in here and there all over the 
trunk. Any one watching the Jays and squirrels in the fall 
will find them filling crevices with nuts or seeds, dropping 
nuts, acorns, corn, and other things into cavities and hollows 
in the trees, or burying them in the leaf mould on the 
ground. 
I once watched a Crow killing a large, brightly colored 
beetle, probably Calosoma scrutator, which it buried care- 
fully beneath a tuft of grass. Returning a few moments 
later, the sable bird unearthed the brilliant insect, carried it 
away and buried it in another place. In a pine wood in 
Medford, on April 16, 1897, several Crows flew from the 
ground. Here, under the pines, an interrupted feast was 
found. Crows, Jays, and squirrels had been digging out 
stores of acorns which probably had been buried there the 
previous fall. The interrupted diggers had left six acorns 
which they had dug from one hole; others were partly 
unearthed. 
It is said that squirrels bite off the germ ends of the acorns 
before burying them. This habit has never come under my 
observation. These acorns not only had their germ ends 
intact, but seven of.them had sprouted. One had sent the 
tap root down four inches into the mould. They had been 
carefully set with the points downward, as if by a squirrel, 
and at just the right depth for planting. A man could not 
have done it better. They were deeply covered with light 
mould and pine needles. Some of the digging looked like 
the work of squirrels, but marks on some of the acorns were 
apparently made by the beak of a bird. A gray squirrel 
was seen near by. Had its feast been interrupted by the 
Crows, or had all been at work together? How could the 
Crow know that the acorns lay buried just there? Did he 
remember that he planted them? Had he seen the disturb- 
ance of the pine needles, caused by the young sprout? Or 
