12.  One winter, when the crop had been abundant, I got, with the aid of a rake, many quarts of these nuts as late as the tenth of January; and though some bought at the store the same day were more than half of them moldy, I did not find a single moldy one among those which I picked from under the wet and moldy leaves, where they had been snowed on once or twice.  Nature knew how to pack them best.  They were still plump and tender.  Apparently they do not heat there, though wet.  In the spring they are all sprouting.

13.  Occasionally, when threading the woods in the fall, you will hear a sound as if some one had broken a twig, and, looking up, see a jay pecking at an acorn, or you will see a flock of them at once about it, in the top of an oak, and hear them break it off.  They then fly to a suitable limb, and placing the acorn under one foot, hammer away at it busily, making a sound like a woodpecker’s tapping, looking round from time to time to see if any foe is approaching, and soon reach the meat, and nibble at it, holding up their heads to swallow while they hold the remainder very firmly with their claws.  Nevertheless, it often drops to the ground before the bird has done with it.

14.  I can confirm what William Barton wrote to Wilson, the ornithologist, that “The jay is one of the most useful agents in the economy of nature for disseminating forest trees and other nuciferous and hard-seeded vegetables on which they feed.  In performing this necessary duty they drop abundance of seed in their flight over fields, hedges, and by fences, where they alight to deposit them in the post holes, etc.  It is remarkable what numbers of young trees rise up in fields and pastures after a wet winter and spring.  These birds alone are capable in a few years’ time to replant all the cleared lands.”

15.  I have noticed that squirrels also frequently drop nuts in open land, which will still further account for the oaks and walnuts which spring up in pastures; for, depend on it, every new tree comes from a seed.  When I examine the little oaks, one or two years old, in such places, I invariably find the empty acorn from which they sprung.

Definitions.—­1.  Mem’brane, a thin, soft tissue of interwoven fibers. 2.  Prop-a-ga’tion, the continuance of a kind by successive production. 4.  Port’a-ble, capable of being carried. 7.  Trans-por-ta’tion, the act of conveying from one place to another. 8.  De—­cid’u-ous, said of trees whose leaves fall in autumn. 11.  Ger’mi-nat-ing, sprouting, beginning to grow. 14.  Or-ni-thol’o-gist, one skilled in the science which treats of birds.  E-con’o-my, orderly system, Dis-sem’i-nat-ing, scattering for growth and propagation.  Nu-cif ’er-ous, bearing nuts.

XCII.  SPRING AGAIN.