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and they begin to pluck them long before they are ripe, so that when the crop of white-pine cones is a small one, as it commonly is,
那时松果成熟还早，果实还小，松鼠们便早早开始动手了。
they cut off thus almost everyone of these before it fairly ripens.
一般来说，它们几乎不会错过秋天里每一粒珍贵收获。
I think, moreover, that their design, if I may so speak, in cutting them off green,
此外，依据松鼠设想，我是否可以这么猜测，松树果实尚青嫩生涩，
is partly to prevent their opening and losing their seeds, for these are the ones for which they dig through the snow,
松鼠们便迫不及待地开始采摘，一方面在于它们唯恐裂落地，失却到嘴的美食；或许直到冬天来临，松鼠才能从积雪里挖出，
and the only white-pine cones which contain anything then.
至于那些落地的白松松籽，那可是漫长冬季里唯一贮有种子的活命粮。
I have counted in one heap the cores of two hundred and thirty-nine pitch-pine cones which had been cut off and stripped by the red squirrel the previous winter.
我曾发现一堆松果，那是上一个冬季红松鼠啮咬撕扯后藏匿下的，我数了数，竟有二百三十九颗松果。
The nuts thus left on the surface, or buried just beneath it,
坚果被丢弃地面或浅埋土壤，
are placed in the most favorable circumstances for germinating.
给种子提供了极易萌发的环境，
I have sometimes wondered how those which merely fell on the surface of the earth got planted;
但我有时还是无法明白，那些落到地表的种子如何就能发芽？
but, by the end of December, I find the chestnut of the same year partially mixed with the mold, as it were,
12月末，我通过观察后发现，当年生栗子落地后，部分外壳已霉变，
under the decaying and moldy leaves, where there is all the moisture and manure they want, for the nuts fall fast.
残枝颓叶混杂覆盖地层，落地栗子从而获得必需的湿濡与营养。
In a plentiful year a large proportion of the nuts are thus covered loosely an inch deep,
挂果多的年头，大多落地坚果上覆盖着腐泥颓叶，深达一英寸，
and are, of course, somewhat concealed from squirrels.
藏匿在稀疏软泥下的果实，起码可躲过松鼠一劫。
