360 Transactions British Mycological Society. 



and cavities is more common than storage in the branches of 

 trees. 



M. W. Gorman who has botaniscd in Alaska, is reported by 

 W. A. Murrill as having made the foUowing statement*: 



"In the region west of the Yukon River the small red or 

 ' pine ' squirrel lives during the winter upon the seeds of Picea 

 alba and mushrooms. The latter are collected in large quantities 

 during the summer and placed in the forks of branches and other 

 secure spots above the ground to dry." Three different kinds of 

 brownish-coloured agarics were noticed by Gorman who says 

 that the squirrels visit their collections every day, even in the 

 coldest weather. 



The two following statements sent to me in writing by Mr 

 Ernest Hiebert and Mrs Doern, both of whom are known to me 

 as careful observers, supplement one another and prove in the 

 clearest manner that, in Manitoba, the Red Squirrel not only 

 stores fungi in particular trees in the autumn but also feeds 

 upon the fungi so stored during the winter. 



Mr Ernest Hiebert thus recounts his observations: 



"In the middle of August, 1917, at Sandy Hook, near Gimli, 

 Manitoba, I noticed what appeared to be a mushroom stuck 

 between the lower branches of a spruce tree. Upon closer ex- 

 amination I discovered several more fungi in the same tree to 

 the number of twelve in all. Most of them were in the lower 

 branches about fifteen feet from the ground and a few as high 

 as forty feet from the ground. They had all been placed between 

 the horizontal forks of the twigs in the upright position in which 

 they grow. I removed several of these fungi and found them 

 quite dry and all apparently belonging to the genus Russula 

 except one, which I took to be Lactarius piperatus. 



"Several days later in the same grove of spruce trees, I came 

 across a Common Red Squirrel carrying a fungus along the 

 ground. Upon being pursued, it dropped the fungus which 

 proved to be a perfectly fresh Russula." 



Mrs A. H. Doern's observations were made in a suburb of 

 Winnipeg and are still more interesting. She says : 



"In October, 1918, I noticed a common red squirrel carrying 

 a mushroom up one of the trees which grew in my yard at Nor- 

 wood. The fungus was then placed between the twigs so that 

 the gills looked downwards. Several more mushrooms were 

 placed in a similar position in the same tree; and, during the 

 winter that followed, I repeatedly watched the squirrel eat of 

 these dried mushrooms. The squirrel would remove a mush- 

 room from the twigs on which it had rested, nibble at it, and 

 then replace it as before but in some other part of the tree. 



* W. A. Murrill, Animal Mycophagists, Torreya, Vol. 11, 1902, pp. 25-26. 



