138 Field and Forest Rambles. 



an established habit ? Even Mr. Darwin might smile with 

 something approaching contempt at this explanation ; but he, 

 in common with all who are competent to discuss the subject, 

 knows how ignorant we are of many of the laws of inherit- 

 ance. The broken imitations of noises, and fragments of 

 songs, uttered by the mocking-birds, are scraps copied from 

 familiar sounds. The individual just mentioned imitated, in a 

 rough way, the rasping of a saw, from constantly hearing the 

 sound in the woodyard, and two or three notes of a white- 

 winged crossbill in a neighbouring cage; but every imitation 

 was unfinished, as if the bird's memory could not retain more 

 than a few of the pointed notes.* 



Now with reference to the part played by animals in the 

 propagation of plants, thrushes no doubt convey seeds of plants 

 and fruits for long distances, perhaps more extensively in this 

 region, where, in common with the other migrants, they fly 

 long distances on a stretch when migrating. There is a current 

 assertion that passenger pigeons have been killed in New 

 Brunswick with rice in their crops. About the last food it 

 obtains here is buckwheat,f which is found growing about wild 

 in the forests far away from settlements. 



Again, looking at what are called " blue berry plains" — large 

 tracts of forest country that have been at one time burned, and 

 are now overgrown with shrubs and whortle berries — forming 

 insulated patches in the very centre of the forest, are sometimes 

 so effectually locked in thereby, that the winds have little 

 chance of conveying seeds. Here, besides the vaccina, are 

 found other ground fruits, and the choke cherry, mountain 

 ash, or elder, on which bears, pigeons, cedar birds, thrushes, 

 etc., feed at the end of the season when migratory movements 



* According to Boardman, both the Baltimore and Orchard Orioles 

 rarely appear in our forests ; perhaps in the no very distant future, when 

 the country is more opened out, they will become plentiful, seeing that 

 both are very common in the neighbouring New England States. 



t P. Tartaricum is extensively cultivated on the banks of the St. John. 



