378 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



Striped Spermophile, and while the latter will not gnaw out of 

 a box, this readily does so. Caged specimens cut open hazel- 

 nuts also." {Kennicott.^) 



Bailey says^ in his Ground-squirrel Report: "At Pem- 

 bina, N. D., I found several young Mice [Peromyscus bairdi] 

 in the stomach of one of these Spermophiles, and at Orton- 

 ville, Minn., I shot one in the act of eating a freshly killed wood 

 phoebe (Contopus virens). It had evidently just caught the 

 bird, though it is difficult to understand how." Speaking of 

 the omnivorous habit of the species. Prof. C. L. Herrick says:^" 

 *' During the summer it feeds upon wild fruits, such as straw- 

 berries, but has well-marked carnivorous propensities. During 

 a few days' encampment on Lake Traverse several of these 

 animals became so domestic as to partake freely of fish from 

 our table so long as no suspiciously hasty motions were exe- 

 cuted by the human participants." 



L. Bruner, of Lincoln, Neb., testifies" that in his 

 State "it is carnivorous, at least when in captivity, as I can 

 testify from experience with one I had caged during the greater 

 part of one summer. After having been in a cage for about a 

 month, I turned in a Mouse one day, in order to have a 'happy 

 family' in my menagerie. Imagine my horror then to see Mr. 

 Squirrel pounce upon the Mouse, kill and eat it in such a 

 manner as to indicate that it was not the first Mouse thus eaten. 

 The bones were held in the fore-feet and striped clean, after 

 which they were dropped. The time occupied for the entire 

 task of killing and eating the Mouse was not more than five 

 minutes." 



Finally Herrick quotes Jillson as authority for the state- 

 ment: "If a pair takes up its abode near small chickens and 

 turkeys they soon thin them out."*^ 



In Manitoba, also, this charge has been made against the 

 Scrub-gopher. Indeed, it seems to be the only one of our 

 rodents that is an habitual depredator of the chicken-yard. 



« Quad. 111., 1857, p. 81. » U. S. Dep. Agr., 1893, Bull. 4, p. 56. 



•° Mam. Minn., 1892, p. 167. 



" Bailey's Prairie Ground-squirrels, 1893, Bull. 4, p. 52. 



" Mam. Minn., 1892, p. 168. 



