406 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



This seems to show that the kingbird recognized in the 

 Ground-squirrel an enemy — one who was a habitual destroyer 

 of small birds and their eggs. 



AS Those that I kept in cages invariably preferred raw meat 



HUNTER to any vegetable food I could offer them. Professor F. E. L. 

 Beal states ^^ "that at Ames, Story County, Iowa, he once saw 

 one carrying a Field-mouse. 



In a letter dated Lincoln, Neb., June 19, 1888, Professor 

 L. Bruner says:" "I saw a Gopher catch and kill a Field- 

 mouse, which is something I have never seen them do before. 

 I do not know what caused the Gopher to do so, for as soon as 

 I approached it, it dropped the Mouse and ran into its hole. 

 The Mouse was badly bitten." 



*' Dr. Hoy has shown that this animal feeds upon Mice and 

 insects when in captivity, and he further informs me that he 

 has examined burrows in which the numbers of the skins of 

 Meadow-mice found sufficiently proved the appetite exhibited 

 by his caged specimens, to be natural. Those observed in 

 captivity killed and devoured Mice in the same manner as the 

 Weasel, showing themselves to be adepts in this mode of pro- 

 curing food. One would spring upon a Mouse savagely utter- 

 ing a low snarl, and despatch it by biting its neck, after which 

 the top of the skull was taken off, the brains licked out, and the 

 blood sucked, the body not being devoured when there was an 

 abundant supply." (Kennicott.y* 



Thus the long, slender weasel-like body of the species is 

 not misfitting its character. This is, indeed, the Weasel of the 

 Family, and we wonder how the small ground-birds could raise 

 a brood at all in the early days, when this bloodthirsty little 

 creature abounded on the plains and daily ransacked its home 

 acre for the defenseless eggs or young of prairie birds. 



BAL 



cANNi- Nor does this sanguinary little rodent balk at the climax 



of a carnivorous life. As I have seen many times in cages, 

 and as is attested by nearly all observers, it does not hesitate on 



^* Loc. cit., p. 39. " Loc. «/., p. 37. '^Quad. III., 1S57, p. 78. 



