Strange Friendship. 283 
of wolves, foxes and badgers. When the subject has been 
carefully investigated, the owis never appear to enter the 
same hole or burrow with a squirrel, and a squirrel is never 
seen to enter a burrow that was occupied by owls, however 
strongly he may be tempted by fear to enter the first hole 
he should come to. The spermophile never likes to enter 
any burrow but his own, and has been known to run past 
any number of inviting entrances in order that he may hide 
himself in his own domicile. 
In the case of the Chickaree Squirrel and the Saw-whet 
Owl, they occupied the same hole together in perfect har- 
mony and mutual good-will. It was notan accidental occur- 
rence, the Squirrel merely seeking the cavity to escape a 
danger that impended, for the bird and the Squirrel had been 
repeatedly observed to enter the hole together, and in the 
most amicable manner possible, as though they had always 
shared the apartment. Ordinarily the Chickaree is a very 
pugnacious creature, attacking with the greatest fierceness 
the gray and black squirrel whenever they had the temerity 
to cross his path. He seems to be ever bent upon blood. 
Though strictly by nature a rodent, subsisting principally 
upon nuts and the bark of trees, which his powerful incisors 
enable him to manipulate effectively, yet he has not always 
remained true to his instincts, for he has been frequently 
detected in eating the eggs of birds, and also in the seizure 
of the feathered denizens of our lawns and woods, which he 
will capture with all the skill of the blood-thirsty weasel. 
His method of operation is peculiar. He will lie in wait, 
concealed from view by the dense foliage of the trees which 
he is wont to affect when in quest of game, and when some 
unsuspecting bird hovers near pounces upon it with unerring 
precision, and effecting its capture proceeds to suck, sitting 
up in true squirrel fashion, the life-sustaining fluid through 
a wound inflicted in the side of the neck. Having satiated 
his thirst, which may have been the prime object of the capt- 
ure, the dead body of the bird is dropped, and the little 
