No. 4.] DECREASE OF BIRDS. 503 



the nests of birds, but that they never disturbed the nests 

 or young birds.* 



There may be many good squirrels, but there certainly 

 are some bad ones, as the literature of field natural history 

 teems with instances of their destructiveness. To convince 

 the reader, some new evidence is appended, collected dur- 

 ing this inquiry. 



"Red squirrels, I think, do fully as much damage as 

 crows. For a number of years I had quite a colony of red 

 squirrels on my premises, and protected them, as the family 

 liked to see them around. But one morning there was a 

 great commotion among the robins in the yard ; I stepped 

 to the door with gun in hand, expecting to find crows, but, 

 on looking closely, found a red squirrel at the nest, from 

 which he soon started, carrying something in his mouth. I 

 fired at him, and he dropped to the ground, and with him a 

 young robin with the head partly eaten ; and on looking the 

 ground over, I found two others in the same condition. 

 Since then by observing closely I have found them despoil- 

 ing the nests of robins and other birds of either the eggs or 

 young, and shoot them on sight, as a nuisance." ("W. J. 

 Cross.) 



*' I was at work in one of my gardens when my attention 

 was attracted by the cries of a pair of thrushes near by. 

 On approaching, I discovered a red squirrel sitting upon 

 the nest, busily devouring their young. I drove the little 

 rascal away with stones, but he returned again, and had bit- 

 ten the remaining birds before I reached the nest again, it 

 being several rods distant. The next day I found nothing 

 left but the empty nest. The young thrushes were more 

 than half grown, and were all destroyed, undoubtedly by 

 this same squirrel." (Henry X. Smith.) 



"There is an apple orchard on the rear of my place, and 

 during the summer of 1903 I was surprised to see the robins, 

 etc., continually building new nests. They would no sooner 

 have a nest finished and eggs laid, than they would be at 

 work on a new one, usually in the same tree, the first one 



* " A hermit's wild friends," Mason A. Walton, p. 69. 



