510 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN" INSTITUTION, 192 8 



layer. The ground was covered with fragments of bark, and white, 

 naked stems and branches had been scraped by fine teeth," 



The red squirrel is not a markedly frugivorous species, but occa- 

 sionally it eats some fruits of various kinds. I have seen it eat the 

 fruits of the wild gooseberry {Ribes ci/nosdati), black elderberry 

 {Sa77ibucus canadensis), red elderberry {S. racemosa), raspberry 

 {Rubus stHgosus), bunchberry {Cornus canade'nsis) , wild straw- 

 berry {Fragaina virginiana) and wild rose {Rosa lucida), but only 

 on rare occasions. It takes apples more frequently than any other 

 kind of fruit, especially those that are left hanging on the trees all 

 winter, usually biting off and throwing away the skin and pulp and 

 eating the seeds, but sometimes eating some of the pulp. The only 

 case of depredations on cultivated fruits which has come to my 

 attention was reported to me by Dr. A. H. Leim, who told me that 

 at Fergus, Ontario, he has seen this species take strawberries before 

 they were ripe, eating the green side and leaving the riper side, 

 next green gooseberries, carrying them off; then white and red 

 currents, which they ate; then green apples, about one-half grov/n, 

 which they both ate and carried off. 



The red squirrel is very partial to mushrooms of many species, 

 both eating them in the fresh condition and storing them in large 

 quantities. I have seen squirrels eating Pleurotu^ ostreatus, Golly- 

 hia radiacata, Canthrarellus cihai^us, Russula of many species. 

 Boletus of several species, Lepiota naucinoides, Morchella esculenta, 

 M. conica and C'lavaria aurea. Whether the red squirrel eats the 

 poisonous species, such as Amanita niuscaria and A. 'phalloides, and 

 whether, having done so, disastrous consequences ensue, is a point 

 upon which there are no exact data. I have in several cases noticed 

 large numbers of very fine specimens of Amanita muscaria entirely 

 untouched in habitats in which red squirrels were common. On 

 the other hand, one day I saw a squirrel sitting on a fence eating 

 a piece of mushroom which looked much like a piece of A. Tnuscaria. 

 When I went close the squirrel dropped the piece of mushroom, 

 and nearby I found a specimen of A. tnusca7'ia with a piece of very 

 similar size taken out of it. This is at best only circumstantial 

 evidence, and the sequel remains entirely unknown. 



Roots of some woodland plants and underground stems are ap- 

 parently eaten to some extent by the red squirrel, I have seen them 

 digging for something in the spruce forests of New Brunswick, but 

 whether for roots or insect larvae or pupae I could never determine. 

 Osgood (1900) says that in the Yukon "little excavations in the 

 moss show where the Chickarees have been digging for roots." 



A peculiar food-habit of the red squirrel was reported to me bj 

 Dr. A. H. Leim. In July he saw the squirrels eating the seeds from 

 the heads of timothy {Phlewn pratense) and orchard grass 



