SCIURUS HUDSONIUS. 
ii7 
about to fall, but I never knew even one of the youngsters to lose 
his hold. On these occasions they were always silent. I have 
also seen them, in June, in the act of eating the leaf-stems of the 
sugar maple ( Acer saccharinuwi), to which habit my attention was 
directed by observing the frequent dropping of green leaves to the 
ground.* 
The propensity to suck the eggs and destroy the young of our 
smaller birds is the worst trait of the Red Squirrel, and is in itself 
sufficient reason for his extermination, at least about the habitations 
of man. I have myself known him to rob the nests of the red-eyed 
vireo, chipping sparrow, robin, Wilson’s thrush, and ruffed grouse, 
and doubt not that thousands of eggs are annually sacrificed, in 
the Adirondack region alone, to gratify this appetite. Therefore, 
when abundant, as he always is during the springs that follow good 
nut years, his influence in checking the increase of our insectivorous 
birds can hardly be overestimated. 
Dr. A. K. Fisher informs me that on three occasions he has 
known these Squirrels to destroy young robins. In the first 
instance he heard the old birds making a great outcry near his 
home at Sing Sing, and on going to ascertain the reason found a 
Red Squirrel in the act of devouring a young robin. A well- 
directed stone caused him to drop the bird, which was found with 
its head cut into and the brains eaten. One wing and both feet 
had also been eaten. The details of the other cases are much the 
same. In one instance the Squirrel returned several times to the 
nest and carried off all the young. f 
* Mr. E. P. Bicknell writes me from his home at Riverdale, New York : “ On our place they 
feed through the winter and early spring on the flower-buds of the white maple ( Acer dasycarpum). 
Often several are to be seen perched among the leafless and bud-besprinkled branches about the 
top of one of these trees, scattering the snow below with fragments of the red buds and even entire 
twigs which later would have become sprays of blossoms and fruit.” 
f Dr. Edgar A. Mearns, in his valuable paper upon the Birds of the Hudson Highlands, states : 
“ Among the Robin’s worst enemies may be ranked the Red Squirrels ( Sciurus Hudsonius), for, 
though their young are subject to the attacks of Crows, Jays, and particularly to the ravages of the 
Black Snake ( Bascanion constrictor ), yet none of these enemies inflict as much injury as the 
Squirrels, because, not only do they seek out and devour the eggs, but the young are also eaten,” 
