THK AUDUBON BULLETIN 17 



Protecting Birds Against Squirrels 



By Dr. B. H. Warren, West Chester, Pa. 



AS a general proposition in the East, squirrels — Gray, Black, Fox, 

 /-% Red or Pine, the Flying and the little striped Ground Hackey or 

 -*- -^ Chipmunk, are all more or less given to destroying birds. 



I have a farmer friend in Northern Pennsylvania who has a sugar 

 bush of some 65 acres, many large maple trees, numerous big beech 

 trees, some hickory trees, lots of hemlocks, etc. This wooded tract is 

 locally famous for Gray Squirrels. Some years back I knew a farmer's 

 boy who one season told me he killed about 75 grays in the place and I 

 think he told the truth. 



There are many Red and Flying Squirrels as well as considerable 

 numbers of Ground Squirrels on the premises. 



The farmer loves birds. Several years ago he made and placed on 

 trees in the interior, and about edges, especially of this sugar bush, 

 100 wooden bird boxes. The first year several of them had tenants, viz. : 

 bluebirds, crested flycatchers, woodpeckers and a couple of wren fam- 

 ilies. Since then practically no birds have nested in the boxes. Two or 

 three years after the boxes were erected, an examination of a number 

 was made and it was learned that a lot of them were inhabited by fly- 

 ing squirrels; some had gray squirrels as occupants, and a few had mice 

 therein. 



On one side of this sugar bush there is a grove of native chestnut 

 trees which, before the blight killed nearly 100 or more of the trees, 

 produced almost every year a large crop of nuts. At the present time 

 I understand some of the trees still survive and bear fruit. These nuts 

 were and are most desirable food for squirrels as are fruits of other trees 

 in the sugar bush. The sugar bush is quite a good place for Ruffed 

 Grouse in season, and in hunting them in winter I have often noticed 

 there are very few old birds' nests to be seen in trees or shrubbery. 



Boxes erected about the buildings on the same farm, where the 

 family resides, have nearly every year a few visitors such as bluebirds, 

 wrens and crested flycatchers as breeders. The squirrels do not harbor 

 about the farmer's house and other buildings near to same. 



Under date of October 1, 1923, Mr. W. B. Bell, Acting Chief, Bureau 

 of Biological Survey, Washington, D. C, writes as follows: 



"Dear Dr. Warren: 



"Your letter of recent date relative to the carnivorous habits of the 

 Fox Squirrel has been received. 



"We have no definite original data respecting the destruction of 

 birds or their eggs by the Fox Squirrel. Frank E. Wood, however, in the 



