THE RED SQUIRREL AS A MYCOPHAGIST 207 



fleshy fungi in bulk in the autumn for winter use. The air in 

 Manitoba during the autumn and winter is very much drier than 

 in England, so that the collected agarics dry without rotting or 

 becoming unduly mouldy. 



Storage in the Forked Branches of Trees. When I first heard 

 of squirrels storing fungi in the branches of trees, the story sounded 

 in my ears like a romance and I was somewhat sceptical. However, 

 as a result of a series of enquiries, although I myself have not as 

 yet seen a tree with more than two fungi hanging in it, I cannot 

 now doubt that trees laden with fungi by^ squirrels have been 

 observed by others. Thompson Seton writes of them quite fami- 

 liarly and his observations are supported by other observations 

 made by M. W. Gorman in Alaska and by my personal friends 

 and acquaintances at Winnipeg. 



Thompson Seton in his well-known book on Northern Animals 

 writes of the Red Squirrel as follows l : 



" The second food supply in winter is mushrooms, chiefly of the 

 genus Russula'. If these were to be stored in the same way as the 

 other provisions they would doubtless rot before they could be of 

 service. The Squirrel stores them in the only available way, that 

 is, in the forked branches of the trees. Here they are safe from 

 the snow that would bury them, from the Deer and Field-mouse 

 that would steal them, and, instead of rotting, they dry up and 

 remain in good order until needed. 



" I have seen Red-squirrels storing up these mushrooms in the 

 Sandhills south of Chaska Lake, Manitoba, in the Selkirk Mountains, 

 on the Ottawa, and on the upper Yellowstone River. The 

 Squirrel's sense of private ownership in a mushroom-stored tree is 

 not so clear as its feeling regarding a hoard of nuts it has gathered. 



" During early winter in Manitoba I have once or twice seen 

 a Red-squirrel dig down through the snow to some mushroom, 

 still standing where it grew, and there make a meal of it. 



" While camped at Caughnawanna, on September 14, 1905, I 



was witness of a comic display of frugality and temper on the part 



of a Red-squirrel. A heavy footfall on the leaves had held me 



still to listen. Then appeared a Chickaree labouring hard to drag 



1 E. Thompson Seton, loc. cit., pp. 326-327. 



