THE RED SQUIRREL AS A MYCOPHAGIST 209 



of twelve in all. Most of them were in the lower branches about 

 fifteen feet from the ground and a few as high as forty feet from 

 the ground. They had all been placed between the horizontal 

 forks of the twigs in the upright position in which they grow. I 

 removed several of these fungi and found them quite dry and 

 all apparently belonging to the genus Russula except one, which 

 I took to be Lactarius piperatus. 



" Several days later, in the same grove of spruce trees, I came 

 across a common red squirrel carrying a fungus along the ground. 

 Upon being pursued it dropped the fungus, which proved to be a 

 perfectly fresh Russula." 



Mrs. A. H. Doern's observations were made in a suburb of 

 Winnipeg and are still more interesting. She says : 



"In October, 1918, I noticed a common red squirrel carrying 

 a mushroom up one of the trees which grew in my yard at Norwood. 

 The fungus was then placed between the twigs so that the gills 

 looked downwards. Several more mushrooms were placed in a 

 similar position in the same tree ; and, during the winter that 

 followed, I repeatedly watched the squirrel eat of these dried 

 mushrooms. The squirrel would remove a mushroom from the 

 twigs on which it had rested, nibble at it, and then replace it as 

 before but in some other part of the tree. Finally, during a cold 

 spell in mid-winter, the mushrooms which still remained all 

 disappeared from the tree and, after this, the squirrel failed to 

 return." 



Another observer who has watched squirrels taking fungi up 

 into trees and storing them there is my friend and colleague, 

 Dr. Gordon Bell, who writes as follows : 



' I have often seen squirrels carrying pieces of fungi up into 

 trees. At Fox Lake in Ontario there was a large pinkish fungus 

 which was very common in the woods and which interested me 

 because I wished to find out whether or not it was edible. One 

 day in the latter part of August, for fully fifteen minutes, I watched 

 a red squirrel carry pieces of the fungus up into a pitch-pine tree 

 and deposit them in the forks made by the branches. I have 

 also seen squirrels in Fort Rouge, Winnipeg, carrying pieces of a 

 Peziza-like fungus up into trees. I think it highly probable that 



VOL. II. P 



