34° REPORT OF THE FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 



suddenly in numbers in certain places seems to prove that the squirrels migrate 

 in search of more food. The fact, also, that they are sometimes met with in 

 considerable numbers swimming lakes and streams, and always in one direction, 

 seems to point in the same way. 



Besides the beechnuts and acorns which he collects, he often, in more inhabited 

 regions, visits the farm and takes his share from the orchard, where, amid the 

 apples, he often does much damage. Mushrooms also he stores away, and often 

 visits the corncribs for additions to his supply. On these stores he feeds during 

 the winter and appears to have no difficulty in finding them, digging through the 

 snow, no matter how deep. Still he is always on the lookout for any other 

 things he may find, and he may often be seen in the dead of winter feeding on 

 the cones still hanging on the trees. Then, too, his insatiable curiosity leads 

 him into all sorts of places in search of stores that 'the chipmunk has hidden 

 away. In the spring, when the young buds are swelling, he gets a variety of 

 food, biting off and eating the buds of the spruce, and often covering the ground 

 with the twigs he has bitten off. Hardwood trees, also, are not exempt from 

 him in his desire for green things, and he often does considerable damage in this way. 



Then, as the spring advances, one of his worst propensities comes to light. 

 This is his habit of sucking the eggs and destroying the young of the insectivorous 

 birds. In this he is worse than any other of the bird enemies; for, unlike the 

 crows, jays, and the blacksnake, he continues his depredations after the eggs are 

 hatched. This one habit is enough to condemn the red squirrel to destruction 

 wherever one desires to have birds. 



In return for this, however, he is preyed upon by the hawks and owls; but 

 they must take him unawares, for in a chase through the tree tops the squirrel has 

 much the advantage. Should he find one of these enemies resting anywhere near 

 him, he at once adopts offensive tactics, and worries the bird till it is glad to get 

 away. Then, too, the red squirrel occasionally falls a prey to the mink or to 

 the weasels, whose long, slender bodies enable them to follow the squirrels into 

 their holes. Besides these, the man and the small boy with the gun are always 

 abroad. 



In spite of all these the red squirrel has held his own and in fact has taken 

 to the proximity of man very well, even turning some of man's contrivances to 

 his own account. Thus the zig-zag rail fence is one of his delights, and as Stone 

 says, nothing pleases him better than to run a race with you while you are 

 driving along the road. Then, they like to play tag, and a pair may often be 

 seen chasing each other over and through all .sorts of obstacles, with the utmost 

 recklessness. When hunted with a shotgun he soon learns its power, and after 



