Rural School Leaflet. 931 



to pig nuts while they last. Chipmunks fill their nests with grain or 

 buckwheat. Besides the nuts and grains the red squirrel destroys eggs 

 and young nestlings of the valuable song birds that keep the trees 

 free from insects. On the other hand, there are birds that like squirrel 

 meat. Owls and hawks feed on squirrels; also foxes and weasels. Squir- 

 rels sometimes plant valuable trees. The hoard may be forgotten 

 or the squirrel may be killed and the buried nuts are left to grow. 



The bodies of squirrels, though small, are very delicious food and 

 the fur is fine and soft and for its size valuable. 



1. Do squirrels take any other food from the farm crops except the 

 nuts from the trees? 



2. Do they eat birds' eggs or the young nestlings of singing 

 birds? 



3. Have they bird enemies who in turn eat them? 



4. Is the squirrel sometimes a tree planter whose buried nuts and 

 acorns grow for the farmers' benefit? 



5. Are their small bodies useful as food? 



6. Js their fur of any value as clothing? 



The Mouse. — Little good can be said of the mouse except that she 

 is a tender mother, a careful housekeeper, and exceedingly neat about 

 her person. Her food when she lives in the fields and woods consists 

 of the grass seeds which the farmer prefers should drop down into the 

 soil and grow, the roots of the grass whose tender feeding tips she gnaws, 

 destroying its power to grow. She does almost as much damage to young 

 trees of the nursery stock as the rabbit. As house mouse she not only 

 destroys food but gnaws holes through walls, makes nests in valuable 

 articles like feather pillows or soft woolen blankets, and is often a great 

 nuisance. She has many enemies; the mousing cat, weasel, skunk, 

 hawks, and owls are all forever on the watch for her. 



1. What is the food of a mouse living in the fields and woods? 



2. What enemies are on the watch for it there? 



3. Does it ever gnaw the roots of the grass as well as eat the seeds 

 when ripe? 



4. Does it damage young trees by gnawing the tender green bark? 



5. What is its food in the houses in which it comes to live? 



6. Does it damage other things besides eatables? 



7. Is it the same kind of mouse that lives in the wood or fields that 

 comes into the house to live ? 



8. Tell how many different kinds of mice you have seen and how 

 they differ in appearance. 



9. What do you think the most humane way to get rid of mice? 



