332 
REV. M. C. H. BIRD ON ACORNS. 
upon acorns, and the only birds which pluck them from the 
trees,* the roving pheasants, and the late-arriving wild duck. 
The latter birds stray far from water in search of acorns, and 
may frequently be flushed during hard weather from Oak 
woods, or inland ditches which are overhung by Oak trees. 
During the winter of 1903 I surprised a couple of Pintail 
Ducks thus engaged, and on December 13tli I took 39 large 
acorns, weighing 6 oz., from the cr:>p of a Mallard which I 
had shot at evening flight. 
Where acorns fall into water ditches they will sink to the 
bottom and keep quite sound for several months. The idea 
of storing them in watertight barrels out of doors, instead of 
heaping them like potatoes, when they are apt to heat and 
start into growth, was probably suggested to some outdoor 
student of nature who had observed, as I have frequently 
done, Wood Pigeons searching the sides of ditches for them 
when the water has subsided in springtime. 
Former experience has taught us that an unusual crop of 
wild fruit is no certain presage of a hard winter, such super- 
abundance can only serve to remind us of what has been in 
the past, namely, a favourable blossoming period for the 
embryo fruit to set and a good growing time during the 
summer to develop it, following on a suitable previous 
autumn for ripening the bearing wood. 
Observation will also have sufficed to explode another 
popular fallacy, and have shown us how little dependence 
can be placed upon the old saying concerning the foretelling 
of the weather of the' coming summer from the comparative 
dates of foliation of the Ash and the Oak. The usual 
tradition states that if the Oak comes into leaf before the 
Ash, a fine and dry season may be expected to follow, whilst 
on the other hand, if the order is reversed, a wet summer 
may be anticipated, but this ancient adage, like the Delphic 
* I have seen Wood Pigeons, later on in the year, taking the seed of 
Quetcus ilex from the tree. 
