302 



RECREATION. 



and the gray being driven away by red, I 

 can answer the first half from personal ob- 

 servation, and the second from hearsay evi- 

 dence. 



Around my studio in the Catskills, N. Y., 

 were nests of robins, catbirds, and phcebe 

 birds, and within 50 feet of my North win- 

 dow was a dead tree containing a squirrel 

 nest. At the top of this was the entrance 

 to a woodpecker's nest. 



I was much interested in the affairs of my 

 neighbors and busied myself in dropping 

 crumbs about and chasing small boys away. 



About 6 feet from my door was a low 

 hemlock in which was a robin's nest. One 

 morning I heard the owners of this nest 

 making a deuce of a row, and thinking a 

 snake had alarmed them, I stole forward 

 quietly to hit it a whack. To my astonish- 

 ment, as I parted the branches to look in, I 

 nearly put my face against a squirrel, sitting 

 on the edge of the nest with an egg clasped 

 against his breast by his claws. 



He was as much astonished as I, but re- 

 covered quicker, for he was off before I 

 could hit him, and he took the egg too. 

 There was one left in the nest and that, also, 

 was missing the next morning. 



I do not know whether a squirrel would 

 try to carry away so large an object as a 

 grouse egg or not. 



Tradition, in the shape of an oldest in- 

 habitant or 2, and various farmer hunters, 

 says that at one time, Delaware county was 

 full of gray squirrels, and that they were 

 not only driven out by the red, but were in- 

 variably mutilated so that they were in- 

 capable of further propagating their kind. 

 This I often heard and the only evidence I 

 could discover, bearing on the truth of it, 

 was the fact that I rarely found a red 

 squirrel while hunting in the gray districts, 

 and never a gray where the red were nu- 

 merous. H. M. Rosenberg. 



Union City, Pa. 



Editor Recreation: Now that Mr. Bil- 

 lings has started Recreation readers talk- 

 ing squirrel, I'd like to say a few words 

 about that little terror we call chipmunk, 

 fence mouse, ground squirrel and a dozen 

 other names. Talk about a red squirrel rob- 

 bing birds' nests or killing young birds ! 

 He is not in it with the chipmunk ; at least 

 in captivity. 



At one time I put a pair of these little 

 devils in a bird room containing 50 or 60 

 native and foreign finches. The chipmunks 

 had everything they could wish in the 

 way of food, but every morning I would 

 find 1 or 2 birds missing. After I had lost 

 about a dozen this way and nearly every 

 nest in the room had been ruined, it began 

 to dawn on me that something must be 

 done. On making an investigation it didn't 

 take long to find the guilty party. 



One of the cocoanut shells used by the 

 birds as a nest was over half full of egg- 



shells, pieces of wings, feet, feathers, etc.; 

 and I found more evidence of the same kind 

 in one or 2 hollow logs that were in the 

 room. 



Of course the chipmunks were at once 

 taken out of the room and given new quar- 

 ters. At the same time I had a female red 

 and a male black squirrel in the same place, 

 but never knew them to bother the birds or 

 their nests. 



Mr. E. Foullion, of Indianapolis, Ind., 

 had nearly the same experience. Mr. Sei- 

 fert, of the same place, kept a pair of red 

 squirrels in his bird room for nearly 2 

 years, without their doing the least damage. 



I also remember one instance where I 

 caught a little chipmunk trying to drive a 

 robin off from her nest, built in a rail fence. 



C. T. Metzger. 



In reply to your inquiry, I would say the 

 red squirrel, owing to its superior agility, 

 is master of everything in the squirrel line, 

 in this State. J. G. Wood, in his " Nat- 

 ural History," speaking of the black squir- 

 rel (Sciurus niger), says: " It seems to be 

 a timid animal, as it has been observed to 

 flee in terror when threatened with the 

 anger of the red squirrel (S. Hudsonius)." 



I am unfamiliar with the name " pine 

 squirrel," so frequently seen in Recrea- 

 tion. What is he? How, if in any way, 

 does he differ from the "red squirrel"? 

 The Riverside Natural History gives S. 

 Hudsonius as the proper name for the 

 " chickaree, hackee, or red squirrel." An 

 old volume of the U. S. Agricultural Re- 

 port, giving Pennant as authority, says of 

 S. Hudsonius: 



" This animal is known . . . under 

 the names of red squirrel, chickaree, pine 

 squirrel, and sometimes mountain squir- 

 rel." 



The American Cyclopaedia says: " Chick- 

 aree is a name given to the red — Hudson 

 bay — or pine squirrel (S. Hudsonius) ; " 

 while W. E. Catlin (p. 5, January Recre- 

 ation) credits the pine squirrel with the 

 name S. Richardsoni. 



Now who is right? Will someone en- 

 lighten us on this point? 



B. C. B., Northville, Mich. 



I will answer L. W. Brownell's remarks 

 in May Recreation, by taking him with 

 me on a little stroll in the woods. It is 

 early autumn, and the leaves are just be- 

 ginning to change. We wander along a 

 little . creek, climb a ridge and sit down 

 beside a hemlock tree. Presently we hear 

 something coming through the leaves and 

 see a large gray squirrel, followed by a red 

 one. We sit still, and on they come — right 

 along the ridge. The red is gaining, and 

 as they get opposite our tree he overtakes 

 the gray and a squabble ensues. Their 

 movements are so quick and the scuffle is 

 so soon over that we can hardly tell whether 



