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The Museum Gazette 



rose hips. They pluck them from the trees and bushes and 

 carry them away to eat, and thus disperse the seeds over a 

 large area. If the seed is enclosed in a hard smooth case (as 

 in the holly berry), it is eaten by the bird, the case being 

 hard enough to protect it from injury by the gastric juices. 

 Failing a sufficiently hard covering the seed may be protected 

 from swallowing by a hairy covering, which unpleasantly 

 irritates the mouth of the bird. Rose-carpels are an example 

 of this. In cherries, plums, and other stone-fruit, the large 

 stones are not eaten by the birds. 



Holly berries are so attractive to thrushes that the bushes 

 are usually denuded of the scarlet dainty long before the 

 advent of severe weather; it is the same with those of the 

 mountain ash, and other brightly coloured berries. This early 

 dispersal is doubtless beneficial, and ensures the production of 

 a vigorous seedling, but it is disastrous to the birds if the frost 

 is prolonged. 



Prevalence of Seeds. — It is noticeable that one kind of berry 

 or seed (sometimes two or three) occurs more abundantly than 

 any other. 



In 1902 holly berries were remarkably abundant in this 

 district. In the spring of 1904 the ash flowered in profusion 

 throughout the south of England; the abundance of the 

 " keys ,; in the following autumn was the subject of much 

 comment. We are not aware that the phenomenal flowering 

 attracted much attention, it is probable the flowers were quite 

 overlooked by the casual observer. In the same year the 

 wych elm flowered very profusely. 



Last year beech and hazel nuts were especially abundant. 

 This season there was again a good crop of nuts, though 

 perhaps not so many as last, and certainly the parasite is 

 more common. (With us the maggot of the nut weevil was 

 unusually numerous in 1903.) But the mountain ash is the 

 tree which has excelled all others this year in the production 

 of seeds. The gorgeous clusters of berries festooned every 

 tree and bush, but the greedy and improvident birds have by 

 this time eaten them all. 



