A TRIBE OF GNAWERS AND THEIR FOOD 77 



It is not my intention to advocate intemperance 

 as a means of grace on the part of one's pets, nor 

 do I say that the wild orgy indulged in by Robin 

 was the cause of his regeneration. I only tell the 

 incident as it happened and leave the reader to 

 draw his own conclusions as to the advisability of 

 high license, prohibition, local option or free rum 

 for red squirrels. 



RED SQUIRRELS KILL PIGEONS. 



Since writing the above I have made a visit to 

 Litchfield, Connecticut, where the red squirrels are 

 very abundant; while there I met Mr. James New- 

 ton Gunn, who has a summer home and keeps 

 pigeons at this charming old town. When he visited 

 his summer place during the winter he found with 

 dismay that some creature was devouring his pets. 

 He supposed, of course, that the ravages in his 

 dove-cot were committed by rats; but resolving to 

 investigate the matter thoroughly, he arose early 

 one morning and crept very quietly up to the 

 pigeon loft and peering in, he saw a red squirrel 

 in the very act of killing one of his pigeons. 



The peculiar and interesting part about this is, 

 that the squirrels only ate the heads of the birds, 

 and then making a hole in the pigeons' breasts, 

 devoured the contents of the crops. As far as I 

 know, this is a new record of the predaceous habits 

 of the red squirrel and a novel way to procure 

 grain. 



