GATHERED BY THE WAY 
color, or the eye of a bird of prey, and thus probably 
deceives its victims, but there is no reason to believe 
that this guise is the result of any sort of mimicry. 
Vv. THE COLORS OF FRUITS 
Mr. Wallace even looks upon the nuts as pro- 
tectively colored, because they are not to be eaten. 
But without the agency of the birds and the squir- 
rels, how are the heavy nuts, such as the chestnut, 
beechnut, acorn, butternut, and the like, to be scat- 
tered? The blue jay is often busy hours at a time 
in the fall, planting chestnuts and acorns, and red 
squirrels carry butternuts and walnuts far from the 
parent trees, and place them in forked limbs and 
holes for future use. Of course, many of these fall to 
the ground and take root. If the protective colora- 
tion of the nuts, then, were effective, it would defeat 
a purpose which every tree and shrub and plant has 
at heart, namely, the scattering of its seed. I notice 
that the button-balls on the sycamores are protec- 
tively colored also, and certainly they do not crave 
concealment. It is true that they hang on the naked 
trees till spring, when no concealment is possible. It 
is also true that the jays and the crows carry away 
the chestnuts from the open burrs on the trees where 
no color scheme would conceal them. But the squir- 
rels find them upon the ground even beneath the 
snow, being guided, no doubt, by the sense of smell. 
The hickory nut is almost white; why does it not 
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