204 RESEARCHES ON FUNGI 



Winter Stores of Fungi. The Red Squirrel stores up fruit- 

 bodies of fungi for the winter often in large quantities. The fruit- 

 bodies are sometimes (1) stored in bulk in a hole in a tree, in an 

 old crow's nest, or in some disused building, etc. ; but sometimes 

 they are (2) hung up separately in the horizontal forks of trees. 

 When thus hung up in the autumn, they soon dry and thus become 

 preserved until the snow is on the ground and they are required 

 for food. 



Storage in Bulk. Mr. Stuart Griddle of Treesbank, Manitoba, 

 in a letter to the author, says : "I have often found fungi stored 

 by squirrels above ground but never under ground. The chief 

 places where I have found fungus stores have been woodpeckers' 

 holes, hollow trees, and birds' nests especially crows' nests." 

 Soon after writing thus, Mr. Griddle very kindly sent me a collection 

 of dried fungi which had been stored by a squirrel in an old box 

 in the loft of a disused house. In the collection there were 116 

 fruit-bodies altogether, many still quite intact, but some partially 

 devoured and some represented only by large fragments. Of 

 these 116 fruit-bodies, 22 were Boleti and 94 Agaricaceae. The 

 former weighed 6^ oz. and the latter 14 oz., so that the total weight 

 was 1 Ib. 4J oz. The fruit-bodies w r ere sent to me in February 

 and, owing to this being a very dry time of the year, they were 

 exceedingly dry and very tough or brittle. When being gathered 

 by the squirrel, they must have weighed many pounds. Some of 

 the pilei bore the characteristic marks of a squirrel's incisor teeth. 

 Many of the Boleti, and perhaps all, belonged to Boletus scaber 

 (Fig. 74) or B. versipellis and, among the Agaricaceae, there were 

 at least two species of Russula, at least one species of Cortinarius, 

 a Hypholoma possibly H. fasciculare, and Lactarius piperatus. 

 Some of the fruit-bodies of the last-named species had been 

 parasitised by Hypomyces lactifluorum and therefore showed only 

 slight ridges beneath their pilei in place of gills. 1 A second 

 collection of fungi sent me by Mr. Stuart Griddle from another 

 squirrel's home at Treesbank was even larger than the first, 

 for it contained between two and three hundred fruit-bodies. 



1 Cf. Chap. Ill, section : " The Suppression of the Gills of Lactarius piperatus. 

 etc." 



