SCIURUS CAROLINENSIS LEUCOTIS. I 29 



second. The blows from their hard ])ills were so severe and so 

 painful that the poor Squirrel had not been struck half a dozen times 

 when he let go his hold and fell to the ground, but was off and up 

 another tree before I could reach the spot. I witnessed a similar 

 attack upon a Gray Squirrel (color-variety of the same species) last 

 August, but this time the Squirrel succeeded in getting into a hollow 

 limb. The time of year at which the above instances occurred 

 precludes the possibility that the cause of the difficulty arose from an 

 intrusion on the nesting-ground of the woodpeckers, for the first took 

 place in midwinter, and the second after the young were fully fledtred 

 and had left the nest. Neither is it at all likely that the trouble was 

 due to an old grudge which might have arisen from a habit, on the 

 part of the Squirrel, of robbing the woodpeckers of their eggs, for 

 the size of the animal is such as to prevent his ready entrance into 

 the woodpecker's hole, and should he even succeed in getting in, he 

 would doubtless pay the penalty with his eyes, if not his life." * At 

 this time I was in ignorance of the cause of enmity between them, 

 but was soon after enlightened on this point. While much the 

 larger part of the beechnut crop falls to the ground after the first hard 

 frosts, a few nuts remain on the trees throughout the winter. These 

 the woodpeckers consider as their exclusive property, assailing and 

 punishing all rivals with a valor, persistence, and severity, astonish- 

 ing to behold. Now the Squirrels find it much more conve- 

 nient to procure the nuts that still cling to the branches than to dig 

 down through the snow in search of those that lie buried beneath. 

 Therefore, it often happens that the woodpeckers, on coming to the 

 grove to feed, discover that the Squirrels are there before them, 

 stealing the scattered nuts. Their wrath knows no bounds, and they 

 attack the intruders with such unmistakable earnestness and effi- 

 ciency that the latter, unable to defend themselves, are glad of any 

 haven to which they may escape. During the last five )-ears I ha\e 

 witnessed these encounters over and over again, and am convinced 



* Bull. Nutt. Oruith. Club, Vol. Ill, No. 3, July, 187S, pp. 125-126. 



