126 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA [No. 55 



and winter stores are located, but calling and answering neighbor 

 .squirrels from their equally well-protected areas on all sides. Quar- 

 rels and fights over boundaries are not uncommon. These differ- 

 ences, though, are generally settled before the winter stores are com- 

 pleted, and rights once established are generally respected. 



Breeding habits. The 4 to 6 young in a litter of these squirrels 

 are usually born in June but are rarely seen put of the nests 

 until a month later. At birth they are naked, blind, and helpless, 

 but in the soft, warm lining of hollow trunks, or the big grass-ball 

 nests in the branches, they are cared for by devoted mothers until, 

 as nearly half -grown, well-furred, and bushy-tailed little squirrels, 

 they are first allowed to come out of the nests. Even then they con- 

 tinue to nurse until they have learned to find and eat the flowers 

 and green seeds of trees and plants, and make an independent living 

 for themselves. The old squirrels furnish a copious supply of milk 

 from the 4 pairs of mammae, arranged in rows on the 2 long parallel 

 and continuous mammary glands, extending under the skin from 

 the pectoral to the inguinal region. There seems no evidence that 

 more than 1 litter of young is ever raised in a season. 



Food habits. Most of the food of these forest-dwelling squirrels 

 consists of the seeds of conifers, from the little seeds of spruce and 

 hemlock and fir to the larger nutlets of some of the pines. Other 

 seeds, buds, bark, and mushrooms are eaten at times. When the cone 

 crop fails, the squirrels are sometimes forced to seek other feeding 

 grounds. In April 1911, H. E. Anthony in a letter from Ironside, 

 Oreg., wrote that Richardson's squirrels had come down the pre- 

 vious fall into the valley where they remained all winter among 

 the ranches ? raiding grain bins and root cellars. The cone crop in 

 the mountains was almost or quite a failure, and no doubt this was 

 the cause of the migration to the valley. This was the first time in 

 10 or 15 years, he said, that it had occurred. Again in September 

 1913, he wrote that the squirrels were again working down, several 

 being seen 6 or 7 miles from the timber, following the lines of willows 

 along the creeks. He went up into the pines and found again that 

 there were practically no cones. These notes have an important 

 bearing on the often-reported migratory habits of squirrels. 



In a good cone year the bushels of cones stored under the trees, 

 under logs, in hollow places in the ground, or in the old heaps of 

 cone scales, usually last well through the winter, though not beyond 

 the coming of the next cone crop. A failure of this food supply, 

 therefore, is a serious matter to the squirrels. 



Economio status. On account of their small size these squirrels 

 are rarely used as game, but in absence of any other food, one will 

 make a substantial meal, roasted over the coals and eaten without 

 salt. Indirectly they have a value as food for marten, fisher, and 

 other fur-bearing animals of the forest, but like many of our birds 

 their highest value is in the element of life, music, and beauty that 

 render our forests attractive. Their assistance to the foresters in 

 gathering cones generally wins them the good will and protection 

 that they well deserve. 



Their value as seed planters in forest extension is generally recog- 

 nized as far outbalancing their consumption of seeds for food. Many 



