246 



THE MUSEUM 



important one of this little quadruped 

 has always appeared to be to provide 

 food for the carnivora of the woods, 

 but natures balance this year seems to 

 have been disarranged, in that no 

 hawks of any species appears to have 

 made our forests their summer camp- 

 ing ground, and the little squirrel has 

 ranged with immunity far and wide 

 and everywhere, varying his diet of 

 fern fronds, mushrooms and swamp 

 apples, as the boys call the fungus 

 growth on the wild azaleas, with eggs 

 and young of the little birds of the 

 wildwoods. Many a rare bird's nest 

 have I been led to by the scolding of 

 the owner over an intruding chipmunk. 

 I well remember the only worm-eating 

 warbler's nest I have ever found here 

 was discovered by being led to the 

 lonely spot in that manner. 



I was much interested in a curious 

 find which I discovered last year, it 

 was an egg partially imbedded in the 

 ground, proving on removal to be the 

 egg of a Ruffed Grouse, fitting into the 

 mouth of a small squirrel's hole in the 

 ground like a cork in the neck of a bot- 

 tle pointed end downward. The egg 

 contained a nearly full developed young 

 bird and must have been extracted 

 from its nest at a late stage of incuba- 

 tion, from how far f know not as the 

 location of the nest was not discovered. 



Black snakes and weasles find in the 

 little squirrel's body a diet greatly to 

 their taste and the woods, a preserve 

 ready for any demand of their appetites 

 and I have been often entertained with 

 a race for a dinner on the one part and 

 for life on the other between them in 

 my rambles, anything but an enter- 

 tainment to the panting victim filling 

 his part unwillingly in nature's econ- 

 omy. 



A small oak grove near my place 

 furnishes a paradise for these squirrels 

 and thence they sally forth in trouble- 

 some raids on my garden. They en- 

 ter my strawberry patch as soon as a 

 berry begins to gather bloom and not 

 content with eating to repletion they 

 strew the ground with berries severed 

 from the stems, nor can they be ban- 

 ished except by being destroyed. As 

 the raspberries begin to color they 

 meet the same fate and a watch would 

 soon disclose the lively little squirrel, 

 making for the grove with distended 

 cheeks filled with the stolen fruit and 

 so goes every thing edible that his taste 

 may fancy in the garden or even the 

 cellar where a family made their home 

 last year and were with great difficulty 

 dislodged. One cunning little rogue 

 took possession of my greenhouse last 

 spring finding a secure retreat in the 

 wall and the climate to his taste. One 

 ofhis amusements was to dig up every 

 bulb that I planted apparently in fun 

 and wontonness as he rarely even nib- 

 bled them. It reset he would dig 

 them right out the very next night. 



Several years ago I noticed in a 

 corner of my yard a little round hole 

 in the ground, grass growing to its 

 very edge as if it had been made by a 

 crowbar, into which one could look by 

 sunlight some fifteen inches and see 

 nothing but darkness. This I soon 

 discovered to be an entrance to the 

 home of a striped squirrel, antl ( ften 

 have I been startled by his sudden 

 "ihiik-a re re n" as he vanished into 

 the ground when I happened that way. 

 One could never get so accustomed to 

 that cry as not to be startled by it. 

 Thither I have often seen him skurry- 

 ing along on the fences with cheeks 

 distended to their utmost capacity 



