504 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



having been abandoned and the eggs missing. One day in 

 passing through the orchard I saw some robins fluttering and 

 scolding about one of the nests, and, being interested, tried 

 to see the cause of the trouble. I found there was a red 

 squirrel sitting on the edge of the nest, devouring the eggs 

 as calmly as possible. I had noticed previously that a pair 

 of red squirrels made their home in a hole in one of the 

 trees, and saw that they were undoubtedly the cause of the 

 depleted nests. I killed the squirrels, and there was no 

 more trouble." (I. C. Horton.) 



" Some five years ago I noticed that some species of birds 

 were decreasing in a certain small piece of woodland that I 

 look over pretty carefully, and the many rifled nests con- 

 vinced me the red squirrels were doing the mischief. I 

 started a campaign after them, and from that time until the 

 present have shot them on sight. During this time have 

 caught them in the act of rifling robins' and catbirds' nests, 

 and with fledglings in their mouths ; also found egg shells 

 around squirrels' nests on the ground. On one occasion 

 saw a pair of robins catch a red squirrel at their nest, and 

 with the help of others drive him from it and chase him to 

 cover. An egg had been taken from this nest, which I found 

 on the ground uninjured, where he evidently dropped it in 

 flight. For some time I had another robin's egg, dropped 

 by a red squirrel, that had been neatly punctured ready to 

 suck." (F. C. Dodge.) 



"In the spring of 1896 my attention was first drawn to 

 the red squirrels robbing birds' nests. In the early morning 

 I have repeatedly seen the red squirrels going from tree to 

 tree, hunting for birds' nests. If these nests contained 

 young birds, they were taken out and eaten by the squirrels. 

 The birds around our place decreased rapidly, and the squir- 

 rels increased. Catbirds, which had begun to nest around 

 here in numbers, as the locality apparently suited them, 

 were entirely driven off, and no longer build nests here. I 

 think it was about four years ago that we killed off numbers 

 of red squirrels, and the birds began then to increase." 

 (Amelia M. Brastow.) 



' ' I have many times seen red squirrels in the act of rob- 



