The Red Squirrel 151 
rcots of various shrubs and trees which he finds 
among his haunts. Even mushrooms are eaten— 
and just how a red squirrel knows the difference 
between the poisonous and the non-poisonous va- 
rieties has always been a mystery to me, but I 
have never seen any but the edible ones collected 
by the squirrels; nor have I discovered even a tooth- 
mark upon the others. Mushrooms decay quickly if 
not gathered at the proper time; and the red squirrels, 
who know this as well as we do, harvest them accord- 
ingly. Then there are the barberries, chokeberries, 
greenbrier-berries, and partridge berries which they 
can add to their store; but these are not exclusively 
the red squirrel’s, for the bluejays, partridges, quail, 
and mice come in for their share. The chickaree, as 
the red squirrel is often called, also makes a point 
of storing cones from the pine, spruce, and hemlock, 
the seeds of these being agreeable to him when the 
branches are coated with ice, and the snow is deep 
through his forest home. He begins the harvest of 
the cones quite early, when the other crops are not 
pressing, cutting them from the trees and letting them 
fall to the ground, where they dry within a few days. 
The squirrel does not gather these cones without 
this preliminary process of seasoning, for if not 
properly cured the seeds would mold. 
