102 ANIMAL COMPETITORS 
whether they are of any use to the animal or 
not. It has been known to carry off even sticks 
of dynamite. 
Its nests are frequently lined by shredding 
gunny-sacking or clothing. Rolled or folded 
blankets have been completely riddled by them 
in their search for stuff to make their beds, 
which often are placed in queer situations. A 
correspondent in British Columbia tells of one 
which inhabited a letter-box nailed against a 
tree in a lonely locality. 
“*T visited him often,’’ he writes, ‘‘and on opening 
the door, his head, with its big round eyes and great 
round ears, would appear out of his warm bed with 
an expression of inquiry, but with no sign of fear. 
He had brought everything in through a knot hole, 
apparently too small to admit even his body. Before 
his nest was stored a pile of Oregon grapes and green 
leaves, but I could not discover that he ate any of 
them, although occupying the box for some weeks.”’ 
On the Pacific coast they are fond of estab- 
lishing themselves ‘in the sod roofs of log cabins 
—or used to be, when such structures were 
more common than nowadays—and become a 
nuisance. 
A capable thief. The following account, 
