^FOftEST , AND _STHEAM, 
SOB 
they hear or see them. At the mother's alarm note 
they squat, at her call to- food they conie, on the first 
day as on the tenth." 
From my own observation I know that this state- 
ment is founded on error. When farming L handled 
thousands of chickens, hatched in the old way, under 
hens. Mr. Burroughs claims that clucks understand 
calls the first day as on the tenth. The first day of a 
chicken's life is a blank. It is hovered by its mother 
nearly all the time. It knows nothing of calls the first 
day. It gradually learns the calls of the mother. The 
call to food first, the call to hover next and the danger 
call last. Chickens hatched under turkeys soon learn 
the strange calls of the turkey mother. Ducks hatched 
under hens soon learn the meaning of the calls of the 
mother hen. Certainly Mr, Burroughs cannot claim 
that chickens and ducks understand the calls of their 
foster mothers when first hatched. This would be too 
ridiculous for a thinking mind. Now, if a chicken can 
learn calls in a strange language by observation and 
association, why not learn its mother's calls in the 
same way? The mystery would not be half so great 
as it would be to claim that a rniraculous power im- 
planted in the chicken a knowledge of its mother's 
calls, before it was born. 
Without a mother's care, guidance and teaching wild 
life would be blotted from the face of the earth. A 
grouse hatched thirteen chicks within sight of my 
cabin. When the young were ten days old the mother 
was killed by a stoat. I looked after the orphans for 
several days, but they perished one by one. ' Without 
a mother's care and teaching their fate was inevitable. 
I leave the subject here as I do not care to occupy 
more valuable space. 
Red Squirrels* 
I WAS greatly interested in "Hermit's*' article on Red 
Squirrels, and can attest the accuracy of his observations, 
as most of what he describes I have seen squirrels do. 
As he has the advantage of living among them in the 
open qpuntry where English sparrows and rats are com- 
mon, he has seen some things which cannot be seen in the 
d(;^^ woods. His account of a battle between a squirrel 
iTiiii ;i Kit was something entirely new to me. I had not 
.s(.i ;)0Bed that a squirrel was able to defend himself 
against a rat. 
I think the reason why people know so little of the 
habits of squirrels is that they are so common that every- 
body thinks he knows all about them, and so takes no 
pains to observe them. Thirty or forty years ago I 
thought I knew all there was to be known about red 
squirrels, and so rarely spent much time watching them. 
I had always seen them eating pine and spruce cones, but 
1 had no idea they ever cut and stored those cones or 
that they ever followed any particular method in eating 
them. It surprised me to find that they had a regular 
time to cut them, as a farmer has to gather any crop, and 
that they gathered them for the seed only, and always 
handled them in the same way when getting the seed. 
As most people know, cones are covered with soft 
pitch when green. As the season advances the pitch dries 
up into separate particles and later the scales bend back 
and the winged seeds fiy out on their mission to reforest 
the surrounding region. After the seed is gone the cone 
is of no more use to the squirrel than a corn-cob would 
be to the farmer. Knowing this, the squirrel cuts his 
cones just at the time when the seed is ripe, but before it 
is detached from the cone. He works for hours at a 
time and for days in succession doing this until he has 
all he cares for. These cones he stores up in some dry 
place to furnish him with food during the following win- 
ter. In most cases he places them in piles among low 
bushes, or on rocks or in holes under stumps. I have 
sometimes seen as many as two hundred pine cones stored 
in one place. When he wishes to use one for food, he 
sits upright and places the cone small end down; then 
he cuts off the upper scale at the butt, exposing the 
seed beneath. In a pine cone the seed is about the size 
of an apple seed. In a spruce it is the size of a tumip 
seed. He cuts off a scale to get at each seed, and as 
the scales are arranged in spiral rows he keeps turning 
the cone as his work progresses. When enough of the 
central pith has been stripped so that it interferes with 
his nose, he cuts it off and gets it out of his way. Many 
people think that he eats this central pith, but the seed 
is the only portion eaten. Knowing that the seeds near 
the small end of the cone are undeveloped and worthless, 
he rejects the tip of the cone. 
Squirrels in late fall and winter are more local than 
most people suppose. They do not wander a great way 
from their stores and will bore down through several feet 
of snow to find them. Many think that they can find a 
cone under the snow by scent, but I feel quite sure that 
it is by remembering the spot where they stored them. 
I have noticed that when a very hard crust has been 
formed by an ice storm, so that they cannot get their 
cones, they will live for days entirely on the mast of the 
white birch. They can, and sometimes do, live for weeks 
at a time on the buds of the elm. A few years ago a 
squirrel took up his residence for the winter under the 
outbuilding of a neighbor. Within a few feet of where 
he lived was an elm tree, the only tree that he could reach 
without going some distance. He used to climb this tree 
nearly every pleasant day from December till into March 
and eat the elm buds. W e watched him with a field-glass 
and could see the buds as he ate them. He certainly got 
no other food for some three months. When it was 
stormy sometimes he did not appear for several days at a 
time. In all my traveling in the woods I never saw a 
squirrel eat an elm bud, but this one lived all winter en-' 
tirely on elm buds. 
Most people know that squirrels tap maple trees for the 
sap, and when writing of it speak of the squirrels suck- 
ing the sap. I have seen squirrels getting sap for some 
sixty years, and always thought that they sucked, till 
this winter I had a chance to learn better. Though 
living in a city, a pair of squirrels took up their abode 
in my attic last fall and stored a great quantity of horse 
chestnuts for their winter supply. Early in the winter a 
cat caught one of them, but the survivor has remained 
till the present date, March 27. As the weather of late 
has been unusually warm, he tapped some limbs in warm 
days in January, but in March he began regularly. A 
maple grows so close to a chamber window that one can 
reach its branches with the hand. As I have been for 
weeks confined to my chamber by illness. I have had such 
an opportunity to watch him as one seldom gets in the 
woods. I was very much surprised to find that he did 
not suck the sap. He lapped it with his tongue. There 
could be no mistake, as often he was within six or eight 
feet of me, and I could see his tongue plainly. I watched 
him day after day, and while in some cases he would 
hang back down under a horizontal limb and let the sap 
drop intO' his mouth, in all other cases, whether lying 
head up or head down, or holding On crosswise, he al- 
ways lapped it with his tongue. He did as I have often 
seen others do, keep busily getting sap for a while and 
then stop and wait quite a spell before resuming work. I 
think they do this to let the sap thicken by exposure to 
the air. While this may not be the true reason, I have 
been able to give no other for their action, as there is 
always plenty of sap flowing if they wished to keep busy. 
I notice that the squirrel sometimes varies his sap diet 
by going to an elm close by and getting a few buds, but 
he seldom eats many at a time. 
While many years ago I thought I knew all about red 
squirrels, I now think that there is a good deal yet to 
be learned about them. Manly Hardy. 
A Remarkable Rat's Nest. 
The remarks on the wood rat's nest recently published 
from the always entertaining pen of our California friend, 
Ransacker, recalled to us an account of a mountain rat's 
nest published nearly thirty years ago in Forest and 
Stream under the title given above. We reprint it here : 
Mr. A. W. Chase in a recent letter to one of the editors 
of the American Journal of Science, gives the following 
account of the habits of the California wood rat — 
Neoioma, no doubt : 
"While on the northern coast, I noticed a fact in 
natural history, to me quite curious, regarding the habits 
of the so-called wood rat. I am not sufficiently versed in 
such matters to give you the name of this interesting 
creature. It is a little larger than an ordinary Norway 
rat, dark brown in color, with large, lustrous eyes, and a 
tail covered with thin hairs. This creature builds its 
nest in the woods, sometimes on the ground ; more fre- 
quently on the lower branches of trees. They accumu- 
late a surprising quantity of dried twigs, which they 
interlace to form a dome-shaped structure, often ten or 
twelve feet high and six or eight feet in diameter. Open- 
ings in the mass lead to the center, where is found the 
nest, consisting of the finely divided inner bark of trees, 
dried grass, etc. But it is to the peculiar thievish pro- 
pensity of this little creature that I wish to call your 
attention. To make my story intelligible, I would first 
state that I am partial owner of some property on the 
Oregon Coast, on which a sawmill had been placed, but 
which, .owing to various causes, has never been in opera- 
tion. On this property was a dwelling house for the 
hands, in which, on work being discontinued, was stored 
a quantity of stuff — tools, packing for the engine, and six 
or seven kegs of large spikes; in the closet, knives, forks, 
spoons, etc. A large cooking stove was left in one of the 
rooms. 
"This house was left uninhabited for two years, and, be- 
ing at some distance from the little settlement, it was 
frequently broken into by tramps, who sought a shelter 
for the night. When I entered this house, I was aston- 
ished to se* an immense rat's nest on the empty stove. 
On examining this nest, which was about five feet in 
height, and occupied the whole top of the stove (a large 
range), I found the outside to be composed entirely of 
spikes, all laid with symmetry, so as to present the points 
of the nails outward. In the center of this mass was the 
nest, composed of finely divided fibres of the hemp pack- 
ing. Interlaced with the spikes we found the following: 
About three dozen knives, forks and spoons, all the 
butcher knives, three in number, a large carving knife, 
fork and steel, several large plugs of tobacco ; the outer 
casing of a silver watch was disposed in one part of the 
pile, the glass of the same watch in another, and the 
works in still another; an old purse containing some sil- 
ver, matches and tobacco; nearly all the small tools from 
the tool chest, among them several large -augers. Alto- 
gether, it was a very curious mixture of different articles, 
all of which must have been transported some distance, 
as they were originally stored in different parts of the 
house. 
"The ingenuity and skill displayed in the construction of 
this nest, and the curious taste for articles of iron, many 
of them heavy, for component parts, struck me with sur- 
prise. The articles of value were, I think, stolen from 
the men who had broken into the house for temporary 
lodging. I have preserved a sketch of this jron-clad 
nest, which I think unique in natural history. 
"Many curious facts have since been related to mc con- 
cerning the habits of this little creature. A miner told 
me the follo^ying: He once, during the mining excite- 
ment in Siskiyou county, became, in California parlance, 
'dead broke,' and applied for and obtained employment 
in a mining camp, where the owner's hands and all slept 
in the same cabin. Shortly after his arrival, some articles 
commenced to disappear; if a whole plug of tobacco were 
left on the table it would be gone in the morning. Finally 
a bag, containing one hundred dollars or more in gold 
dust, was taken from a small table at the head of a 
bunk, in which one of the proprietors of the claim slept. 
Suspicion fell on the newcomer, and he would perhaps 
have fared badly, for vpith those rough miners punishment 
is short and sharp ; but j'ust in time a large rat's nest was 
discovered in the garret of the cabin, and in it was found 
the missing money, as well as the tobacco and other arti- 
cles supposed to have been stolen." 
The same wood rats are among the greatest pests of our 
western country to those who live in log cabins. They 
establish themselves in the roof beneath the sod, and once 
in possession they seem to be constantly on the watch to 
see what they can carry off. We have long been familiar 
with their purloining proclivities, and have even suffered 
by them, but the above narration far exceeds any ex- 
perience of our own.. Can any of our readers match it? 
Massachusetts Bird Arrivals. 
East Wareham, Mass., April g.— Editor Forest and 
Sfream: I notice in your issue for April 4, that Morton 
Grinnell remarks on the early arrival of the white-bellied 
swallows at Mil ford, Conn. My record for the last five 
years gives the following dates for this locality, which 
is 125 miles east northeast from Milford: 1899, April 4; 
1900, April 4; igoi, March 26; 1902, March 22; 1903, 
March 18. 
I have a box that these birds use to nest in every year, 
and have observed that the first birds to arrive are niales. 
It is singular that although there are two separate com- 
partments in their box, they have never used but one. 
Each year they raise one brood, and still, while several 
pairs corne around to examine it every spring, only one 
pair use it. On several occasions I have had to oust the 
English sparrows that took possession before the swal- 
lows were ready. At first I watched their proceedings, 
and destroyed their nest before any eggs were deposited. 
This did not discourage the sparrows, and when my vigi- 
lance slacked they got to work and had five eggs laid be- 
fore I v^as aware of it. I may say that this box is placed 
on the inside of one of the gable ends to my barn, and 
two holes are bored through for the birds to enter. This 
situation was chosen so that cats could not disturb the 
occupants, and at the same time the box could be exam- 
ined and undesirable tenants ejected. I cleared out the 
sparrows nest, eggs and all ; still they would not give up, 
and drove the swallows off whenever they came around. 
1 finally shot the female sparrow and for two years np 
sparrow has ever peeped into it. 
Wc have a post near by on purpose for the male swal- 
low to sit upon while the female is on her nest. 
Other arrivals have been noted as follows : Redwinged 
blackbirds reported on February 25 ; I saw them on March 
5 : bluebirds on the 4th ; wild geese on the 7th ; song spar- 
rows on the 8th, pine creeping warbler April 6, and field 
sparrows singing on same day. We have had no snow- 
flakes, no crossbills, and I have not seen a pine grosbeak 
in the last five years. 
Game birds wintered well, and twelve quail of our home 
flock survived. Pheasants are in sight every day; minfc 
were turned loose early in March, and one of them comes 
to the barn about every day to be fed; she comes right in 
without fear and eats corn at my feet. 
Walter B. Savary. 
A Misleading Tail 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I am very sorry to have to disagree with Mr. Charles 
Hallock m a statement which I understand him to make 
on page 293 of Forest and Stream of April 11. He says : 
"Wolves and coyotes have a sneaking way of carrying 
their tails low, almost dragging on the ground, while 
dogs carry their tails up : and the further removed they 
are from the feral type the higher they carry them. 
Shepherds and collies, which retain many of their racial 
characteristics, carry their tails lowest of all ; setters and 
pointers, a degree or two higher, stiffening out straight 
when drawing on game. Terriers and hounds elevate 
their tails to the spinal line; St. Bernards and New- 
foundlands affect a curve over the back, while pugs 
actually come to a full twist." 
My observation is that American wolves often carry the 
tail high, just as dogs do. The same is true of foxes, 
especially of the little kit fox (Vulpes velox), which is so 
familiar an animal of the plains. 
We are accustomed to think that wolves carry their 
tails low and in a "sneaking" fashion, chiefly because we 
always see wolves frightened and running away from us, 
at which time the wolf lowers his tail, precisely as a 
frightened dog lowers his. In the same way, a wolf that 
IS greatly terrified put its tail between his legs just as a 
dog does. In suppoi-t of these statements, let me quote 
at some length from my article entitled "Wolves and 
Wolf Nature," published in 1897 in one of the books of 
the Boone and Crockett Club: 
"I have often seen Avolves, young and old, at play 
when they were ignorant of my presence, and have been 
impressed by the similarity of their actions to those of the 
dog under like circumstances. When not alarmed they 
often hold the tail high up. I have seen them hold it 
nearly straight up, and also curved up at various angles, 
as a dog may hold his. To show affection or friendliness 
toward their fellows they Avag their tails just as a dog 
does : and some young wolves seen a year or two ago in 
the zoological park at Washington on the approach of the 
keeper showed the evidence of affection and delight that 
a dog would at the approach of a friend; laying back 
their ear.s, grinning, wagging their tails and wriggling 
their bodies in an absurd transport of joy. When the 
wolf is frightenend, it tucks its tail between its legs and 
forward under its belly precisely as does a frightened 
dog." 
This is of the gray wolf, the so-called timber wolf, 
buffalo wolf or lobo of the plains; but I have seen 
precisely the same thing in the prairie wolf, and I am not 
alone this, since in the same article I quoted from Mr. 
Lew Wilmot, an old timer in the western country, who 
speaking of the coyote, said: 
"On another occasion I was coming down from a 
neighbor's, when near the bottom on the Columbia I 
noticed a couple of coyotes hunting through the grass and 
low bushes ; they had their tails up like dogs and seemed 
to be as busy, 
"Soon they were joined by two more, and all had their 
tails up, and as they had not discovered me, I waited to 
see what they were after. I never saw dogs hunt throuo-h 
a flat more diligently than they did, and it was very 
amusing to see them with their tails up. I think they 
were hunting chipmunks. Not having anything to shoot 
with, I started on, and when they saw me they started 
off up the gulch, but lowered their tails coyote-like." 
■ The coyote has often been seen to point game and 
when doing so holds his tail straight out behind' him 
just as a stylish setter or pointer holds his. ' ' ' 
"As he is usually seen, the coyote gives the impression 
•ot a down-trodden, much-bullied animal, that desires 
nothing so much as to get away. It sneaks along with 
downcast mien and lowered tail and casts fearful o^lances 
