BISMARCK, THE RED SQUIRREL 



the owl, the snake, the stoat, the crow, the cat, 

 the irrepressible boy, and the white-footed 

 mouse. For fifteen years birds have nested 

 around my cabin unmolested by the red squir- 

 rel. 



It was always a mystery to me why the 

 birds were not afraid of the red squirrel. Let 

 a hawk, an owl, a weasel, a cat, a snake, or 

 any of the animals known to prey on birds, 

 enter my dooryard while birds were rearing 

 their young, and the wildest alarm would pre- 

 vail so long as the intruder was in sight. The 

 red squirrel can come and go without a protest, 

 which proves that the birds do not regard him 

 as an enemy. 



Whenever I have detected a squirrel investi- 

 gating a bird's nest it has turned out that 

 curiosity was the motive. 



A pair of chickadees nested in a box that 

 I had placed in an oak-tree, and a squirrel 

 that spent the most of his time in the door- 

 yard made it a duty to investigate the nest 

 several times a day. He did not harm the 



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