SCIURUS CAROLINKNSIS LEUCOTIS. 227 



second. The blows from their hard bills were so severe and so 

 painful diat the poor Squirrel had not been struck half a dozen times 

 when he let go his hold and fell to the ground, but was off and up 

 another tree before I could reach the spot. I witnessed a similar 

 attack ui)on a Gray Squirrel (color- variety of the same species) last 

 August, but this time the Squirrel succeeded in getting into a hollow 

 limb. The time of )car at which the above instances occurred 

 precludes the possibility that the cause of the difficult)- arose from an 

 intrusion on the nesting-ground of the woodpeckers, for the first took 

 place in midwinter, and the second after the young were fully fledged 

 and had left the nest. Neither is it at all likely that the trouble was 

 due to an old grudge which might have arisen from a habit, on the 

 part of the Scpiirrel. of robbing the woodpeckers of their eggs, for 

 the size of tlu^ animal is such as to prevent his read}- entrance into 

 the woodpecker's hole, and should he even succeed in getting in, he 

 would doubdess pay the penalty with his e)-es, if not his life." '•' At 

 this time I was in ignorance of the cause of enmity between them, 

 but was soon after enlightened on this point. While much the 

 laro-er part of the beechnut crop falls to the ground after the first hard 

 frosts, a few nuts remain on the trees throughout the winter. These 

 the woodpeckers consider as their exclusive property, assailing and 

 punishing all rivals with a valor, persistence, and severity, astonish- 

 ino- to behold. Now the Squirrels find it much more conve- 

 nient to procure the nuts that still cling to the branches than to dig 

 down through the snow in search of those that lie buried beneath. 

 Therefore, it often happens that the woodpeckers, on coming to the 

 crrove to feed, discox'er that the Sciuirrels are there before them, 

 stealing the scattered nuts. Their wrath knows no bounds, and they 

 attack the intruders with such unmistakable earnestness and effi- 

 ciency that the latter, unable to defend themselves, are glad of any 

 haven to which they may escape. During the last five years I have 

 witnessed these encounters over and over again, and am convinced 



* Bull. Nutt. Ornith. Club, Vol. Ill, No. 3, July, 1878, pp. 125-126. 



