130 ANIMAL COMPETITORS 



his bill of fare. Few animals, remarks Manly 

 Hardy, are more fond of meat : 



"They will eat any kind of meat or fish as quickly 

 as a cat and will live on it days when a chance offers. 

 I have often had them eat each other when one was 

 in a trap. Around camps where provisions are stored 

 they are great pests. Their sense of smell must be 

 very acute, as I have seen where one gnawed a large 

 hole through a new overcoat to get at a bottle of 

 coffee which one of my men had rolled up inside to 

 keep it warm. The squirrel must have smelled it 

 through all the folds of the thick cloth. "Where not 

 troubled they soon become very tame, often coming 

 into a camp and stealing biscuit or gingerbread from 

 the table. I have seen those which certainly could 

 tell one person from another, as they would let one 

 who had never molested them come very near, while, 

 when a person who had stoned them appeared, they 

 would instantly dodge into a hole." 



As summer advances the red squirrel finds 

 ripe berries and fruit to his taste, and in July 

 begins, in the northern coniferous woods, to 

 attack the green cones, especially of the white 

 pine, cutting them off "and burying them, half 

 a dozen in a place, under the pine needles, to 

 be dug up in the winter and spring, and opened 

 for the seeds they contain." At this season, 



