bor
day comes in autumn, and he needs no message from the governor to
stimulate him to work.

After some red squirrels had been given black walnuts, a member of
my family saw them hide the nuts in all conceivable places, and in
some instances place them above a cluster of small branches of a tree
for support where three or more twigs spread from nearly the same
place. Here the nuts, one in a place, were left till perhaps shaken
to the ground by a severe wind or by some other cause. In one winter,
without hunting for them, six to ten places were found in one
neighborhood of Michigan, where something had placed a single walnut
or acorn in the forks of small branches. In some cases a severe wind
could have dislodged the nut.

[Illustration: FIG. 49.--A black walnut as left by a red squirrel
on a small oak tree.]

On February 18, 1897, I found a single black walnut held by small
branches of a red oak.

The oak was an inch and a half in diameter, and the nut was about
six feet from the ground. The nearest bearing tree was fully three
hundred long steps distant. We can imagine that, through fright or
other causes, a squirrel might be suddenly interrupted while carrying
nuts, and might then drop them to the ground, where later a tree would
be started.

38. Birds scatter nuts.--The work of birds in scattering seeds and
fruits has long been recognized.[3]

[Footnote 3: In the fall of 1897, Prof. C. F. Wheeler saw a blue jay
fly from a white oak tree with an acorn in its mouth. The bird went
to the ground four or five rods distant and crowded the acorn into
the soil as far as it could, covering the spot with a few leaves.
A member of my family saw a blue jay leave half of a black walnut
in the forks of several small branches.]

Some friends of mine collected a quantity of hazelnuts, while yet
the green husks enclosed the nuts, and placed them near the house
to dry. At once they were discovered by a blue jay, which picked out
a nut at a time, flew away, held the nut between its toes, cracked
it from the small end, and ate the contents. In this operation a number
of nuts slipped away and were lost. But it seems that all were not
eaten, for the next season half a dozen or more hazel shoots came
up, and to-day a new patch of hazel bushes is growing in the yard.
Doubtless many acorns are carried from place to place and dropped
in an aimless way by woodpeckers, blue jays, and crows; also beechnuts
by these birds, and by nuth