THE SCOTCH FIR OR PINE. 347 



slender wants. The rook, too, is one of Nature's 

 planters of Pine woods. Forsyth* tells us that 

 from the Highland forests there come clouds of 

 rooks in search of food, sometimes in such heavy 

 columns as to create alarm among farmers, as 

 to where and on what they are to dine ; and 

 if it were not for the Pine, which yields them 

 food as well as lodging, they would soon be called 

 by dishonest names, which they would no doubt 

 deserve. Yet of these clouds of rooks, as they 

 fly high, and glide harmlessly over head on their 

 homeward passage in autumn evenings, Scotland 

 may be proud ; for these sable birds have had 

 their homes in the Highland glens time out of 

 mind, and have sown the seeds of almost all 

 the Fir-trees that are to be found in the natural 

 forests. It is well known that the rook has a 

 natural propensity to steal away to some lonely 

 quiet place with its booty, such as a Fir-cone 

 or a potato, and there to eat what he can, leaving 

 the rest, which, in the case of the Pine-cone, is 

 just what is necessary for the production of tim- 

 ber ; for the first heavy snow presses the shat- 

 tered cone, with any seeds that may remain in it, 

 close to the ground, and these seeds, finding 

 themselves in good circumstances as to soil, mois- 

 ture, and heat, soon vegetate in the open heath, 

 and eventually become trees. Some of the rooks, 

 it is said, do even more than this ; they not only 

 convey the cones to some lonely place, but take 

 advantage of the workings of an under-ground 

 quadruped as black as themselves, and may be 

 sometimes seen actively employed in burying the 

 cones in mole-hills. 



* Gardeners' Chronicle. 



