OROUS 



322 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



latter. On June 23, 1906, a Red-squirrel stole an apple from 

 our porch breakfast table and carried it up a tree. Later it fell 

 from the crotch where he had lodged it. He had eaten over 

 one-fifth of it; the remainder weighed four and a half ounces. 

 He had not reached the seeds. Several apples had been stolen 

 thus. 

 cARNiv- Most of the Rodentia will eat flesh, some are largely 



carnivorous; probably all are meat-eaters at times, but the 

 Red-squirrel enjoys the Ill-repute of being the most carnivorous 

 of its genus. 



Its attacks on fledgling birds and birds' eggs are notorious. 

 About noon on June 26, 1905, at Cos Cob, I heard the shrill 

 squealing of a young flicker and the angry churr churro^ an old 

 one varied by a loud clape. On going to the place I found a 

 Red-squirrel on the ground with a fledgling flicker. He was 

 deliberately eating the flesh off its shoulders in spite of its 

 squeals and the very poor defense of the mother. When he 

 saw me he ran up a tree and scolded from a safe place. The 

 little reprobate was soaked and red with blood to the very eyes. 



In June of 1906 at least three robins' nests in my garden 

 were rifled of their new-hatched young by Red-squirrels, and 

 in one or two cases the eggs were taken. Nevertheless, there 

 is remarkable individuality shown among the Squirrels in this 

 particular. A family of five lived in a grove of six or seven small 

 trees near my house. In this grove a yellow-throated vireo 

 reared her young under the Squirrels' very noses. They must 

 have seen the birds, yet did them no harm. 



William Brewster has described to me a similar case in 

 which he saw the Squirrels leap daily over a robin's nest, but 

 offer no harm to the eggs or callow young. These, however, 

 must, I fear, be called the exceptions. The normal Red- 

 squirrel of New England and Ontario is a little cut-throat 

 ruffian — a terror to small birds, especially to the robin. 



Its brother in Manitoba has a similar reputation, though I 

 never saw one actually robbing a nest. 



In the Selkirk Mountains, August 17, 1899, I watched the 

 Squirrels of the region eating eagerly the worms that infested 



