OF THE UNITED STATES 



for the destruction of their nests and eggs. One day, however, 

 the various robberies of the kind were made clear by discovering 

 a pair of Red squirrels in such a position that it left no doubt 

 whatever in his mind but what they were the authors of it. He 

 also said that on another occasion, in Illinois, he knew of a river 

 that had greatly overflowed its banks for a long time, and 

 through this inundation many large trees were killed on the 

 banks. In the trunks of these, numerous woodpeckers had made 

 nest-holes which had subsequently been abandoned, and in them 

 a colony of Purple Grackles had built. One day while collecting 

 in the vicinity he noticed a big Fox squirrel coming out of one 

 of the holes in one of these trees with a young Grackle in its 

 mouth, and there is no question but what the animal made a meal 

 of its capture. 



In my opinion all of the rodents in this country, and doubtless 

 elsewhere, are flesh-eaters, and will eat raw meat whenever the 

 opportunity offers. A number of years ago in New Mexico, I had 

 as pets a litter of Prairie marmots, which as they grew older I 

 accidently discovered were extremely fond of raw beef, and 

 would eat it in preference to any other kind of food. It is a well- 

 known fact of course that rats and mice (domesticated rodents), 

 will consume meat uncooked whenever they get the chance to 

 do so. Muskrats eat mussels (Unios), and the male of tame rab- 

 bits will eat their own progeny. 



Gray squirrels are considered to be by sportsmen legitimate 

 game, and much has been written about their habits and the 

 hunting of them. There is a black variety of this species, as well 

 as several subspecific forms of it. Albinos are also occasionally 

 met with; I saw a beautiful example of one of these latter col- 

 lected a good many years ago in the Catskill Mountains of New 

 York State. There is a northern and southern variety (Sciurus 

 carolinensis leucotis and S. c. carolinensis). "The most remark- 

 able feature in this species of squirrel," says a popular writer, 

 " is its occasional migrations, in great multitudes, over moun- 

 tains and streams, across cleared fields and dense woods, seeming 

 to be guided by some necessity as to food, or some imperious but 

 inscrutable instinct." Marvelous accounts of these migrations 

 have been given us by those who have had the good fortune to 

 witness one of them. Lapland Lemmings perform similar migra- 

 tions, and the reason for them may be an inherited impulse dat- 

 ing back perhaps to the fluctuations of climate during the glac- 

 ial epoch. 



