The Red Squirrel as a Mycophagist. A.H.R. Buller. 355 



THE RED SQUIRREL OF NORTH AMERICA 

 AS A MYCOPHAGIST. 



By Professor A. H. R. Biiller, D.Sc, Ph.D., F.R.S.C. 



In the Transactions of the British Mycological Society for 

 1916, an interesting paper was pubhshed by Hastings and 

 Mottram upon the edibihty of fungi for rodents. It was shown 

 by citations from other authors, by field observations, and by 

 a series of experiments that both squirrels and rabbits attack 

 the fruit-bodies of many of the higher fungi and devour them 

 as food*. The investigations of Hastings and Mottram were 

 made in England but their conclusion that squirrels and rabbits 

 are mycophagists doubtless applies not merely to British species 

 but very generally to non-British species the world over. As a 

 contribution to our knowledge of the relations of rodent and 

 fungi I shall here record a series of observations upon the Red 

 Squirrel and its fungus food, made by myself and by several 

 other naturalists in Canada and the United States. 



The Red Squirrel or Chickaree has an extensive geographical 

 range in North America, for it is found in the woods of Canada 

 and the United States from the east coast to the Rocky Moun- 

 tains. It does not hibernate profoundly during the winter for, 

 on any sunny winter's day, it may be seen about the trees in 

 woods. I myself have seen it in mid-winter at Winnipeg in a 

 park and about houses. The Red Squirrel feeds on the seeds of 

 fir-cones, nuts, etc., but it is also an habitual mycophagist. In 

 the autumn, it often collects fleshy fungi in large numbers for 

 its winter supply of food and it stores the fungi sometimes in 

 holes and sometimes on the branches of trees. This latter mode 

 of storage, although of peculiar interest, does not seem to be 

 generally known to mycologists even in North America. 



Whilst studying fungi in the woods at Gimli on the western 

 shore of Lake \Mnnipeg, at Minaki on the \Mnnipeg Ri\'er, and 

 at Kenora on the Lake of the Woods, I have many times ob- 

 served fruit-bodies of Hymenomycetes which had been partly 

 devoured or otherwise injured by rodents. From the appear- 

 ance of the damaged fungi which was similar to that described 

 by Hastings and Mottram, I came to the conclusion that the 

 destructive agent was sometimes a squirrel and sometimes a 

 rabbit. 



* S. Hastings and J. C. Mottram, The Edibility of Fungi for Rodents, 

 Trans. Brit. Mycolog. Soc, Vol. v, 1916, pp. 364-378. 



