14 f'ROCEEDlN'GS S. I. ASs'n ARTS AND SCIENCES, [VoL. I 



REGULAR MEETING, 

 Saturday, December i6th, 1905, 



The meeting was- held at the residence of Mr. Howard R. Bayne, 

 Klew Brig-hton. 



President Howard R. Bayne in the chair. 



Twenty members were present. 



The minutes oi the meeting of November i8th were read and ap- 

 proved. 



The President gave a verbal report on the business transacted by the 

 Board of Trustees since the last meeting of the Association, 



Mr, William T, Davis exhibited specimens of pine and spruce cones, 

 partially and Completely denuded of scales by squirrels, and read the 

 following paper : 



Notes on the Red Squirrel. 



In the pine barrens of New Jersey, at Lakehurst, there are no nut 

 trees, and the red squirrels that inhabit the woods do not likely know the 

 taste of hickory nuts or chestnuts. The "Chickaree" is, however, a 

 general feeder, eating a great variety of seeds, buds, fungi, fruit, insects, 

 birds' eggs, etc., and in the pine barrens he finds many things to his liking. 

 There is also one kind of food ever handy in winter, namely the cones 

 of the pines, containing the rather small seeds, Thoreau says of the 

 task of opening these cones: "If you would be convinced how dififerent- 

 !y armed the squirrel is naturally for dealing with pitch pine cones, just 

 try to get one open with your teeth. He who extracts the seeds from 

 a single closed cone, with the aid of a knife, will be constrained to con- 

 fess that the squirrel earns his dinner. He has the key to this conical 

 and spiny chest of many apartments. He sits on a post vibrating his 

 tail, and twirls it as a plaything." Thoreau has a still more pleasing 

 account of this proceeding, under date of Feb. 21, 1861, to be found in 

 the volume entitled "Winter," 



Small heaps of these dismembered pine cones are to be found quite 

 often at Lakehurst, usually at the base of some pine tree, but last spring 

 a remarkable collection was discovered from which the material ex- 

 hibited was secured, The squirrel had selected a pitch pine bearing 

 many cones containing good seeds and had bitten off the small limbs 

 to which the cones were attached so that they fell to the ground. Then 

 the cones were removed from the branches and carried to the base of 



