1893] Uninvited Guests 



less exotic than the monkey and the parrot, but Furry 

 by no means indigenous to California. The one, mvaders 

 the Bayou Gray Squirrel -- Sciurus fuliginosus- 

 seems like all his brethren to need an audience, 

 and watches the spectator as though craving ad- 

 miration. Between him and the cats there rages a 

 perpetual feud; the woodpeckers also on their 

 intermittent returns feel outraged by his raid upon 

 their storehouse in the big oak, and scold vocifer- 

 ously over his intrusion. 



The Silver Squirrel of California - - Sciurus doug- 

 lasi - - the largest and handsomest of our members 

 of the tribe, is a shy animal, unfortunately, and 

 never leaves his haunts in the upland forests. Our 

 new friend belongs no doubt to the overflow from 

 Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, where his 

 sociable species has been acclimated and whence it 

 is now making its way down the Peninsula. 1 



The other newcomer, the Opossum, is a beast of 

 very different disposition, sullen in temper and 

 skulking about by night, as he has no love for man 

 and no human trait beyond a taste for chickens. 

 Man in return finds him good only when properly 

 roasted, :< Maryland style"; under these circum- 

 stances he has much the flavor of a sucking pig. 

 Native throughout the Southern states, this inter- 

 esting creature is finding for himself a congenial 

 home in our region, to which some one has pur- 

 posely brought him with an eye to future "possum 



roasts.' 



1 With all forms of this type, as well as some others in America, certain 

 individuals are melanistic glossy black throughout, and exceedingly handsome. 

 Our first squirrel visitors were all black. 



n 517 



