34 



and in as few words as T can, how we may know a Squirrel when we 



see it, and in what respects it differs from other animals. 



* * * ^ * * * * - 



A concise sketch was here eiven of the classification of the animal 



O 



kingdom, and the Squirrels were traced down step hy step to the 



Kodentia. 



* ^ * * ;ic # ^ * >f: 



By an examination of the little animal in question we Iparn at 

 once that it belongs to the order of rodents. Tlie animals of this 

 order are easily distinguished by the arrangement of their teeth. 

 They have no canine teeth, the incisors or cutting teeth being for 

 the most part only two in each jaw, large and strong, and a vacant 

 space between them and the molai's or grinders. The front teeth have 

 a plate of hard enamel on the outside which wears more slowly than 

 the substance of which the rest of the teeth is composed, for this reason 

 the teeth always remain sharp, acquiring a chisel like form, well adapted 

 for cutting or gnawing; and unlike the teeth of most other animals, 

 they are always growing from a fleshy pulp at the base so that com- 

 pensation is made for wear at the cutting ends. Something over six 

 hundred different kinds of rodents have been described and are to be 

 found in nearly every part of the globe; about one hundred species 

 have been described as belonging to North America. 



Having located our little friend among the Rodentia, it is neces- 

 sary to follow him just a little further in order to find out who he is. 

 The divisions in the order are called families, each family having some 

 peculiarity common to itself Among the first of the family names we 

 find that of Sciuridce, deriving their name from a corruption of two 

 Greek words^ shia, a shade, and oura, a tail, from a habit they have 

 of curling their tails over and along their backs so as to form a kind of 

 shade. They are described as animals of rather small size with great 

 variation in color, their bodies being longish, eyes large and bright, 

 ears erect, upper lip always divided, the posterior limbs longer ihan 

 the anterior, the former have five toes and tlie latter only four 

 with a tubercle covered with an obtuse nail in place of a thumb, 

 tail long with bushy hair and generall}^ distichous or divided laterally 

 having somewhat the appearance of a thick feather, All the species of 



