THE EED SQUIEREL KLUGH 511 



{Dactylis glomerata) which they could reach from the posts of a 

 fence. Having obtained all those which they could reach from the 

 posts, they started out along the three-strand barbed wires, ar.d 

 from there they got those that they could reach with their mouth 

 or with their front paws. One squirrel, apparently a young one, 

 went out along a wire, swung down, retaining a hold on the wire 

 with its hind feet, caught a head with its front paws, pulled it back, 

 bit it off, and then either raised itself to the wire from which it was 

 suspended or dropped to the wire below. He also observed them 

 jumping from the ground, catching a timothy head, and bearing 

 it to the ground. One squirrel would persist in this occupation for 

 half a day at a time. 



The red squirrel at times takes animal food, the kinds most fre- 

 quently eaten being insect larvae, young birds and bird's eggs. I 

 have seen them eat the larvae and sometimes the pupae of several 

 kinds of insects. Cram (1901) says, "Occasionally you will see one 

 clinging to the side of some dead pine or hemlock, and listening, 

 woodpeckerlike, to the sounds made by the insects at work beneath 

 the surface. When he has succeeded in locating his prey, he tears off 

 the loose bark with his teeth in great ragged pieces, and presently 

 pounces upon and drags forth a flattened white grub an inch or 

 more in length, which he devours with great apparent relish." 



That this species eats the eggs arid young various species of birds 

 is shown by many data presented in ornithological literature, and 

 this will be referred to later. Personally, I have never yet seen a 

 red squirrel take either an egg or a j^ouug bird, and certainly these 

 items constitute an insignificant portion of the food of the average 

 red squirrel. 



STORAGE OF FOOD 



The red squirrel stores immense quantities of food, chiefly the seeds 

 of conifers, nuts, and mushrooms. During late summer and autumn 

 the chief activity of this species is the storage of food. It also stores 

 food temporarily at all seasons of the year. 



This species practices three methods of storage : carrying things off 

 to one of its main hoards, burying each object separately, and arrang- 

 ing them in a fork of a tree. Food materials are pretty definitely 

 classified into two categories: hard objects and soft. Hard things, 

 such as nuts and seeds, it either carries to one of its storehouses or 

 buries; soft things, such as fungi, fruits or pieces of meat, it arranges 

 about the branches of a tree. Thus it does not bury or put in piles 

 anything which will mold or decay readily. 



The squirrel's main hoards are made either in cavities in trees or 

 stubs, or in vaults underground, beneath the roots of a tree or a 

 stump, or under a bowlder. It has several such storage places, and, as 



