UNUSUAL EXPERIENCES AFIELD 131 



one third of its length out of the water, snapped 

 its huge jaws shut on the blackbird, and dis- 

 appeared. This is the only time I ever saw a 

 fish take a bird for food, but the following season 

 I dressed a four and one half pound black bass the 

 stomach of which contained a red-wing blackbird. 

 The stomach of another large bass I once dressed 

 contained a sunfish fully as large as my hand. 



My daughter and I one day, attracted by a com- 

 motion among the flowers at the end of the steps, 

 saw a red squirrel run for the distance of a rod over 

 the earth and then climb a wild cherry tree, carry- 

 ing in its mouth the squirming, struggling body of a 

 field mouse. A few weeks later, a red squirrel 

 from the nest in this same tree caught a ground 

 squirrel across the back and despite the little 

 fellow's cries and struggles he was carried up the 

 tree and forced headfirst into the opening, which 

 goes to prove that scjuirrels vary their customary 

 diet of nuts with some meat. I have also seen 

 them eat berries and fruit. If my strawberry 

 bed could speak, it could "a tale relate" as to the 

 depredations of squirrels, mice, ground hogs, birds, 

 ants, bees, and bugs. The bed has to be un- 

 usually large so that any berries are left for us. 



Writing of fish recalls the fact that, while work- 

 ing in the Valley of the Wood Robin beside the 

 Wabash, a few days after the water of a high flood 

 had subsided one spring, I found the body of a 

 large carp firmly impaled on a thorn tree. The 



