188 SECRETS OF ANIMAL LIFE 



tree stems. This is all the more interesting if it be 

 true that what the woodpeckers really eat is not the 

 acorn but a kind of grub that develops inside it. 



Not a few mammals are in the habit of hiding 

 away surplus food, and it is easy to imagine how 

 this might lead on to a more definite storing instinct 

 such as squirrels exhibit. In a number of different 

 hoards the squirrel hides hazel-nuts, beech-nuts, 

 and acorns, and these may be a stand-by in the 

 hard times of winter when the beautiful creature, 

 who is not a true hibernator, is unable to sleep away 

 its hunger, or when the young ones, who remain 

 for a long time in the company of their parents, 

 plead for food. In some mild parts of the country 

 the squirrel's storing instinct seems to remain un- 

 developed. There are other mammals, such as the 

 marmots, who make their burrows comfortable 

 with grass and shut the door when winter knocks; 

 it is again easy to see that this might lead on to a 

 definite hoarding of food supplies. Such hoarding 

 is well illustrated by some of the light-sleepers, 

 such as dormice, who awaken from their hibernation 

 whenever the weather is mild and are then inclined 

 to have something to eat. In the burrow of the 

 hamster several store-chambers are made, and 

 grain, as well as hay, is accumulated in considerable 

 quantity. We read that the people of Kamschatka 

 rob the granaries made by one of the voles (Micro- 

 tus ceconomicus} , and that the Mongolian herdsman 

 brings his cow in autumn to eat the haystacks 

 which are so diligently built in the summer months 



