Hundreds and thousands of these fungi will be placed in the forks of tall saplings, bushes, shrubs and even weeds. Some of the toadstools are larger than the squirrel himself, but, like the ant, he will keep tugging away, and finally the little fellow will land them where he wishes to have them placed.
So far as known, the Squirrel never eats the fungi. He does not take any to his hole, and after placing the toadstools in the brush he does not disturb them again. The fungi dries away and may be seen for several years. What instinct prompts the little creature to do this, is a mystery. I have never yet found any naturalist, trapper, hunter or frontiersman who could give a satisfactory explanation of the matter.
The wood rat and magpie will steal every imaginable article about a house, carry it away and secrete it. Most of these articles can not be eaten and are of no possible use to the rat or bird. Perhaps the Pine Squirrel is prompted by a similar instinct.
The Western Pine Squirrel is a perfectly harmless and peaceable animal. He is not known to attack any other animal except the weasel, and then only in self-defense.
J. Mayne Baltimore.
THE AUDUBON’S WARBLER.
(Dendroica auduboni.)
Audubon’s Warbler bears the same relation to the Western United States that the myrtle warbler bears to the Eastern States. It inhabits the forests and thickets of the West from British Columbia southward as far as Guatemala in winter. And, as Dr. Coues has stated, it has rarely been known to pass to the eastward beyond the line of arboreal vegetation, which marks the easternmost foothills and outlying elevations of the Rocky Mountains.
During its migrations it is often associated with the titmouse and the ruby-crowned kinglet. It may be seen skipping about in the tree tops, actively engaged in searching for insects, which it will at times pursue in the air. It may be readily distinguished from the myrtle warbler, which it so closely resembles both in habits and actions, by its yellow instead of white throat, which is characteristic of the myrtle warbler.
Its nest is usually built in cone-bearing trees at a variable altitude of from three to thirty feet. These homes are neatly woven and usually constructed of fine strips of bark, pine needles and twigs. They are lined with fine roots, bark fibers, hair and feathers. In Colorado it is known to breed on the mountain sides at an altitude of nine or ten thousand feet.
The habits of this little warbler are well portrayed by Mrs. Whitman: