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Dear All, Dec 16, 2006
For some time I have been seeing cherry pits in the woodpile with a
hole chewed in one end. These pits are from the _Prunus avium_ seedling
on the lawn. So I got around to looking at two of these.
An intact cherry pit has a pointed distal end and is somewhat
flattened. Size of course varies but the one at hand is 8.3 mm long and
6.8 by 5.5 mm wide. If a pit is placed on a level surface it naturally
lies so the wide dimension is more or less horizontal; one edge being
rounded and the other edge with a slightly raised seam.
Both of the pits with holes are chewed in a similar way. The hole
starts at the pointed end and runs slashwise down the side that has the
raised seam to just past the midpoint; inner dimensions of the hole
being 3.0 x 2.5 mm and 3.0 x 2.4 mm. A kernel that I measured had short
dimensions of 5.0 by 4.5 mm; too large to be pulled intact through the
hole.
So whatever ate the kernels (a Squirrel probably) must have dug them
out with a claw.
Yours truly, Dave Webster
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