juKE 8, 1901.1 FOREST AND STREAM. 44 S 
and made a sleeping nest in a pine tree, both in the door- 
yard. The storehouse was used but little after the first 
winter. The next spring he took to himself a mate, but 
did not introduce her to the dooryard. Some distance 
from the cabin, in a swamp, Bismarck's mate made a 
neat little nest in a hemlock tree. Here she reared two 
bab3'^ squirrels. Bismarck did not take much interest in 
his family through the summer. He spent most of the 
time in the dooryard, sleeping in his own nest by night. 
By day his time was occupied in fighting the crows and 
in driving squirrels and birds from the dooryard. 
There was always a good lot of food for Bismarck to 
choose from, and I thought he would give up hard work 
and lead a life of ease. But I did not know the thrifty 
ways of the red squirrel. When the harvest season for 
liazlenuts drew near, Bismarck buckled down to hard 
work. He began his new life by calling often on his 
family in the hemlock tree. One day I found Bismarck 
and his wife digging beneath a pine tree that grew on 
the high land just out of the swamp. They brought but 
a great quantity of pine rootlets during the next two 
days. There was not much soil, which indicated that the 
squirrels had discovered a natural cavity, partly filled 
with pine rootlets. The third day, about 4 o'clock .in 
the afternoon, the work stopped. Mrs. Bismarck ran to 
a pine root, sat up straight, folded her hands and said 
something. Mr. Bismarck ran to her side, folded his 
hands, and made a reply. Both squirrels looked toward 
the hole beneath the tree by turning half way round. 
Then they looked at each other, and Mrs. Bismarck ran 
into the hole and immediately appeared and said some- 
thing that sounded very much like "it is well." Then 
both squirrels scampered away. The winter storehouse 
was completed. 
When the hazlenuts were ripe Bismarck and his mate 
began to fill the storehouse. Bismarck gathered the nuts 
about the cabin, while his mate gathered those around 
the home nest. Bismarck did a lot of running, for he 
carried but one nut at a time. He always worked under 
high pressure, running to and fro at the top of his speed. 
I noticed that he left many nuts on the bushes, but 
when I investigated I found a worm in each nut — a 
good reason for rejecting them; but as the husks seemed 
perfect, how did Bismarck know the worms were there? 
I think his keen scent was the secret. By the sense of 
smell he could tell a w^ormy from a sound nut. So could 
I after the nut was smashed, but not before. 
After the hazlenuts, beechnuts were gathered. But 
right here competition was t6o great for the squirrels. 
The bluejays haunted the beech groves and could load 
up with from twelve to eighteen nuts, then could use 
tlieir wings against the squirrels' legs, so the latter were 
usually short on becchixuts. 
The acorn followed the beechnut crop, and as the 
woods of Cape Ann are made up mostly of oak trees, 
there were -usually nuts enough for Bismarck's family 
and to spare. 
Besides being a hard worker Bismarck proved to me, 
in .many ways, that he was quick-witted and resourceful. 
A sweet acorn tree near my cabin was loaded with nuts. 
Beneath the limbs' on the south side was a carpet of 
pine needles, while under the limbs on the north side 
grew a dense mass 'of brambles and cat briers. Bismarck 
did not drop a nut into the mass of briers, but carried 
each nut — one at a time — to the clear side before drop- 
ping it. Coiild human intelhgence do more? 
When Bismarck and his mate had stowed away food 
enough for winter, they made a winter nest in the pine 
tree that grew above the storehouse. In the new nest 
the whole family passed the winter after the manner of 
red squirrels. 
The two baby squirrels for the most of the harvest 
time remained in the nest or on the hemlock tree in 
which the nest was located. Now and then they followed 
the mother to a nut tree, but were so noisy that I^imagine 
the fear of enemies caused the discreet mother to drive 
them home. 
When the family .storehouse was well filled, Bismarck 
stored a few nuts in the hole at the cabin. I think he 
would have stored more if it had not been for the alert 
wood mice. He hid a great many nuts around boulders 
and trees. These nuts were used in the winter, and often 
lasted until late in the spring. In the spring, when the 
nuts started to grow, Bismarck dug them up, bit off the 
sprouts, and buried them again. ~ 
When the nut crop is a failure the squirrels are face 
to face with a famine. Long before the nut season ap- 
proaches the squirrels know that they must depend on 
other food for the winter's supply. During one year of 
failure I carefully noted how Bismarck conducted him- 
self, knswing that he would teach me how the red squir- 
rel provides food when his main supply is cut off. When 
September warned the squirrels that the season for pro- 
viding food for winter was on, Bismarck turned his 
attention to the corn in the dooryard. Years before he 
had stored corn, when he was obliged to compete with 
the bluejays and chipmunks. The latter could carry away 
from fourteen to nineteen grains, while Bismarck's load 
was but two grains. He soon evened things up by hid- 
ing corn in the dooryard, or near it.' When the supply 
was exhausted, and the bluejays and chipmunks had di.s- 
appeared. Bismarck would dig up his corn and carry it 
home. It was sharp practice, but the squirrel was justi- 
fied, when we consider the circumstances. For several 
years prior to the famine, Bismarck had dropped the 
habit of storing corn, and only gnawed out the germ, 
leaving the mutilated grain for the bluejays and chip- 
munks. Now, Bismarck undertook to store corn, hiding 
it as of -old, but I vetoed the act, by withholding the 
corn. The squirrel then turned his attention to a black 
cherry tree, and with the aid of a chipmunk soon 
stripped it of fruit. I think the chipmunk gathered the 
fruit for the stone. He gathered an enormous quantity 
and surely could not make use of the soft part. The 
red squirrel may have gathered for immediate use and 
also for a winter supply. 
Bismarck's next mtDve was a great surprise. I caught 
him carrying bones to his storehouse. 
One summer I saw Bismarck sitting on a stone wall, 
apparently eating a bone. After he got through he hid 
the bpne in the wall. I found that the bone was old and 
partly decayed. I smashed up similar bones and Bis- 
marck seemed to relish a meal three or four times a week, 
but I never knew hifti to store bones for winter use be- 
fore. His next move was to attack the pine cones. These 
were gathered while quite green. They were left on the 
ground three or four days and then carried, whole, to 
the family storehouse — a great quantity was stored un- 
der stumps, trees and boulders. The hemlock cones 
were gathered later, but were husked at the foot of the 
tree on which they grew. 
During the following winter Bismarck looked to me 
for food. A loaf of bread was wired to a post near the 
cabin door, from which he could eat, while he could not 
carry it away. One cold, rainy day, he sat by the bread 
without eating, and whimpered like a little child. He 
was telling me in squirrel language that it was cold, 
rainy, and almost night, and that I ought to give him 
some bread to take home to his family. I understood 
his appeal and passed him a biscuit. He scampered away 
chuckling over his good luck. After that, fair or foul, 
all through the winter days, he would beg for bread to 
take home, and always chuckled when he got it. Perhaps 
he was laughing at me for being an easy mark, or it may 
haA'e been a squirrel for 'T thank you a thousand times." 
However that may be, he was welcome, for I thought 
of the baby squirrels starving along on a cone seed diet. 
Bismarck would eat all kinds of meat — even fat pork — 
but he preferred cooked meat to raw. While the famine 
was on he turned his attention to many kinds of food 
found in the woods. I made a record of each variety 
and religiously tasted of- everything he used. Frozen 
barberries and chokeberries were preferred to all others. 
I found the barberries had lost much of their usual sour- 
ness; the chokeberries were sweet and palatable. While 
the former remained on the bushes through the winter, 
the latter were soon exhausted, for they were food for 
quail, grouse, bluejays and mice. The berries of the 
greenbrier, staghorn, sumach and rosehips were used 
sparingly. The greenbrier berries had a sweetish taste; 
the staghorn sumach were sour and puckery, while the 
rosehips had a pleasant flavor at first, ending in a most 
disagreeable bitter. Many mitshrooms were caught by 
an early frost and remained frozen through the winter. 
These were food for Bismarck. He would gnaw out the 
under part, or gills, rejecting the rest. I tasted the food, 
but cannot say that T care for frozen mushroom. 
In the spring pussy willow buds formed a part of Bis- 
marck's food. I found the buds nearly tasteless, but they 
crunched between the teeth like a crisp cucumber. As 
spring advanced, creeping wintergreen and partridge ber- 
ries appeared here and there where the sun had melted 
the snow, and Bismarck greedily devoured the bright 
red berries. Later berries formed the greater part of his 
food until the hazlenuts were ripe. Wild apple trees 
abound on Cape Ann, and Bismarck attacked the fruit 
early in the fall. He destroyed great quantities for the 
seed, which was the only part stored for winter use. 
However, he seemed to relish an apple, if it was not too 
sour, and all through the winter he would eat a Baldwin 
apple, even to the seeds, at one sitting. 
The history of Bismarck through a year of famine is 
the history of other red squirrels on Cape Ann. It is 
evident that the red squirrel is famine proof. If the nut 
crop is a failure, chickaree turns his attention to other 
food sources, and by perseverance and hard work is able 
to keep the wolf from the door. 
For years Bismarck and the bhiejays have matched 
wits. After nesting the bluejays would flock to the cabin 
and impudently appropriate all the food found in the 
trees. Bismarck seemed to know^ that it was useless to 
store food longer in this way, so he would bury it be- 
neath the pine needles. The jays were soon onto this 
trick. When I threw a piece of bread to the squirrel he 
would start at once to hide it, while the jays would follow 
him, keeping in the trees, just out of reach. The moment 
he left, the jaj'S would fly down, dig out the bread and 
carry it away. It often happened that Bismarck would 
fool the robbers by pretending to bury the bread. He 
would dig a hole, cover it over, put down the pine nee- 
dles, but would run away with the bread in his mouth. 
While the jays were scratching the pine needles right 
and left, in a useless search, Bismarck would hide the 
bit of bread and return to the dooryard for more. He 
was not so particttlar if the food was wheat bread, but if 
it was his favorite food — doughnut — the jays were fooled 
every time. 
Every spring Bismarck taps the trees around the cabin. 
He begins on the maples and ends later on the birches. 
If the tree is small, he taps the trunk; if large, he works 
on the limbs. He gnaws through the bark and into the 
wood, then clings to the limb or trunk, below the wound, 
while he laps the sweet sap. If there is a hollow in the 
bark into which the sap flows, Bismarck is sure to find it. 
Did the red squirrel learn how to tap trees from the 
American Indian, or did the Indian learn from the squir- 
rel? 
The habits of the red squirrel are rapidly changing in 
this locality on account of a foolish State law. The story 
is quickly told. Ward 8 (city of Gloucester), where my 
cabin is located, contains over eleven thousand square 
acres. Its area is greater than that of the other seven 
wards combined. The bulk of the territory of ward 8 is 
made up of woodland and shrubland, the city proper 
being in the other seven wards. Ward 8 contains the 
delightful summer resort known as Magnolia. This re- 
sort derives its name from Magnolia Swamp, the only 
spot in New England where magnolia glauca is found 
in a wild state. The famous Coflin's Beach is also in this 
ward. 
The General Court four years ago placed a close time 
of five years on small game in the territory east of Ward 
8. This protects the seven wards of the city and the 
town of Rockport. Two years ago the town of Essex, 
which joins Ward 8 on the west, was protected, so that 
the gunners from a population of about forty thousand 
are turned loose in Ward 8. The extermination of nearlv 
all the game, and of great numbers of song birds, has 
been the result of this peculiar legislation. 
All the wilds things are desperately wild. The red 
squirrel if he hears the report of a gun instantly rushes 
to a hiding place. Well he knows the deadly meaning 
of the report. He has turned day into night and now 
harvests his nut crop in the night time. I sleep in the 
open air, and during the harvest season I listen for hours 
to the sound of dropping^ nuts which the industrious 
but wary squirrels, are cutting from the oak trees around 
my cabin. 
Bismarck is still in the land of the living, although ten 
years have passed since he first introduced himself, and 
requested me to book him for table board. He has cost 
me many dollars, while he has not paid a cent in the coin 
of the realm. However, I owe him for teaching and am 
ready to balance the books and exchange receipts. 
I know that my position in relation to the red squir- 
rel's destruction of song birds will be sharply criticised 
by those who believe in the squirrel's total depravity. 
But the truth is that I describe wild life just as I find it, 
not as some books say I ought to find it. If the red squir- 
rel was as destructive as reported, there would not be 
a young bird reared around my cabin. My notes show 
that last year the following named birds nested near my 
cabin, and probably every nest was known and visited 
by the red squirrel: 
Number of nests. 
Chestnut sided warbler 3 
Black throated green warbler i 
Oven bird 2 
Vireo 4 
Canada fly-catching warbler i 
Robin 2 
Towhee bunting , 2 
Catbird i 
Wilson's thrush 2 
Indigo bird i 
Total , . , ig 
A ruffed grouse nest was looted by the crows when it 
contained but four eggs, after which the bird resorted 
to a swamp and reared a brood. 
Several of the nests named were destroyed, but none 
by the squirrel. In the light of my observations I can- 
not consistently denounce the red squirrel. 
A New Cafibou. 
In Volume XIV. of the Bulletin of the American Mu- 
seum of Natural History, Dr. J. A. Allen described a new 
caribou from the Kenai Peninsula of Alaska. Unfortu- 
nately the only known specimen is a head collected in the 
autumn of 1900 by Mr. Andrew J. Stone, whose explora- 
tions of the far North are so well known to our readers. 
1 he anmial is characterized by great narrowness of skull 
by a great development of antlers, recalling in some re- 
spects the antlers of the barren ground caribou, but much 
heavier and with longer and more numerous tines In 
the specimen described, there runs along the underside of 
the neck a strip of greatly lengthened white hair, four or 
hve inches wide, which hair in the median line is eight 
inches long and sometimes even more. If this feature is a 
constant one, it would be a distinguishing mark of the 
species. Dr. Allen has called this caribou Rangifer stonei 
m recognition of Mr. Stone's important contributions to 
our knowledge of the distribution of large game and 
especially ot the caribou in northern North America 
"That reminds me." 
Ways and Means, 
A TURKEY shoot was in progress'. Three men were in 
the shoot-off. The first man up using the old rifle— 
his companion for many years in many States— centered 
the bullseye. Ihe others could not beat nor equal the 
shot and the winner proudly took the big gobbler home- 
ward for the Christmas diner. 
His wife seeing the gun aiid turkey, assured her hus- 
band that the prize was won by gambling, not by skill 
with the rifle; that the meat was defiled and shoutd by no 
means grace the Christmas table. 
No angry words followed, simply a philosophical 
silence ihen the horse was brought out and the turkey 
was taken to a neighbor's and exchanged for a fat hen 
turkey. This bird, being duly presented to the mistress 
was pronounced wholesome, fqr it was, indeed, young 
and very fat. ^ 
Years passed. The lady of the house is at church on a 
spring morning, leaving the winner of the turkey shoot 
new a sedate old man, at home to care for the hou'^e He 
was reading and musing, when in walked his son with a 
few suckers-taken on the Sabbath day! The pair looked 
guiltily at each other in philosophical silence. Then the 
son, requestmg secrecy on the father's part— as if such a 
request were necessary— took the suckers to the barn 
wliere they rested in cold water that day and night 
Early Monday morning the boy made another visit to 
the brook, caught another sucker, put it on the string 
with those defiled ones and took the mess to his mothe? 
who praised him for his skill. It was skillfully done and 
the suckers were large and plump. 
After the dinner was over and the sucker meat had 
been separated from the bones, the father took the young 
man aside and told him the story of the turkey given 
above, advising him never to waste good victuals but 
always to consult ways and means for ,<;avino- them 
^- ^ Benj. E. Birge. 
:'I went coon hunting down in Georgia with two boys"" 
said George W. Bealock, the other day. "They knew 
nothing about it and it was my first experience The 
dogs treed a coon; we saw the animal enter a hole in the 
tree and we cut the tree down. It did not leap from 
nf. tif"?^'' '''Vr ^^Pe^ted, so one of the boys crawled 
into the tree and began to poke the coon with a pole In 
about a ramute we heard a combination of human" and 
animal ye Is, which indicated that our friend had fomd 
the animal and that it was not a coon. Soon he emer-ed 
from the log and a half-grown wildcat was clin^n^ to 
^^a^;. 'HrP^''^ ^ ^^lo^^ ^^'ith an a.i° we 
succeeded in killing the animal, but the boy who crawled 
nto the log will bear the .scars of his encounteJ wUh 
the young wildcat for the rest of his life. I have been 
coon hunting since, but I am always certain that it is a 
coon that is treed before I cut down the tree."-St liuis 
Globe-Democrat. -i-uuib 
