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The Ottawa Naturalist 



[April 



of the tail when in this attitude varies a good deal, 

 as it may be straight out along the limb, raised 

 slightly from the limb and with a downward curve, 

 or the basal portion resting on the limb and the apical 

 half curved upward. But when it settles itself to 

 consume something which will take some time to 

 eat, it almost invariably elevates the tail straight 

 in the air or applies it even more closely to the back. 

 In eating a nut it first gnaws through the shell at a 

 point just to one side of the apex, then breaks away 

 the shell until it has consumed all the meat. In 

 eating a beechnut it pulls one of the sides off with 

 its teeth and then gets the kernel out whole. 



STORAGE. 

 The squirrel practices three methods of storage 

 carrying things off to one of its main hoards, bury- 

 ing each object separately, and arranging them in a 

 fork or on a limb. It classifies the things that it 

 stores into two classes hard objects and soft. Hard 

 things such as nuts and seeds it either carries to 

 one of its hoards or buries; soft things, such as 

 meat, apples, etc., it arranges about the tree. It 

 thus buries nothing which will mould or decay 

 readily. It has several main hoards, though I only 

 know the exact location of two, and when it is 

 carrying off a number of things consecutively it 

 takes them to two or more of these hoards alter- 

 nately. When it buries a nut in the soil it scratches 

 out a hollow with its fore-paws, places the nut in it, 

 shoves it in as far as possible with its nose, and then 

 covers it with a few swift strokes from right and 

 left with the fore-paws. It performs this opera- 

 tion with much rapidity, but does it so well that 

 when it has buried a nut in a location where there 

 is moss and dead leaves there is no trace of any 

 disturbance. In fact upon three occasions I noted 

 the location of the spot at which I had seen it bury 

 a nut as accurately as possible, but upon going to 

 the place I was unable to find the nut. 



During the winter its chief method of storage 

 is burying in the snow. In doing this it shoves the 

 object into the snow with its nose, then covers it 

 with a few quick sweeps from right and left with 

 its fully extended fore-paws. It will thus bury in 

 the snow not only nuts and other hard objects, but 

 also pieces of meat and small apples. That is, it 

 treated them as hard objects, as indeed they soon 

 were, being frozen solid in a short time. 



CARRYING CAPACITY. 

 It is able to carry off objects of considerable 

 weight, as the following instance shows. On the 

 morning of May 1 1th, it entered the pantry through 

 the open window. There it discovered a bowl of 

 boiled potatoes, some of which it hid behind cans 

 in the pantry, while it carried others up the maple 



tree and arranged them in the forks. Some of the 

 potatoes which it carried up the tree weighed a 

 quarter of a pound. 



TUNNELLING UNDER THE SNOW. 



When the snow became deep the squirrel made 



tunnels beneath it, first driving the tunnel which 



touches the tree, and later constructing the system 



of tunnels shown in Figure 3. During the winter 



FiK. 3 Plan of tunnels of reil suuirrel 

 under the snow. 



I was able to judge somewhat of the extent of the 

 tunnels from the positions of the exits, and when 

 the snow thawed I was able to map them. 



The purpose of these tunnels was to gain access 

 to the keys of the sugar maple which were so thickly 

 scattered about the yard. The squirrel usually 

 brought them to one of the exits to eat. 



ACTIVITY IN WINTER. 



It was out every day during the winter except 

 in very stormy or in extremely cold weather. At 

 such times it would not appear for two or three 

 days at a time. 



LEAPING ABILITY. 



None of the leaps which I have seen it make 

 seemed to tax its leaping power at all. A jump 

 which it made often dozens of times a day in the 

 winter was from the roof to the main crotch of the 

 maple tree a distance of eight feet with a drop 

 of two feet. I noticed that it never tried the return 

 leap, that is a leap which would land it two 

 feet higher than its starting point, but always ran 

 out on a limb and then to the roof. 



In leaping it extends its legs and flattens its 

 body, while the tail is straight and stiff behind it. 



MANUAL DEXTERITY. 

 Though it lacks a "thumb" its dexterity with its 

 fore-paws is much greater than in the case of most 

 animals. By taking them between its paws it 

 handles both large and small objects with the utmost 

 precision and certainty. It can turn a smooth and 

 slippery nut round and round in its paws and I 

 have never seen it let anything slip. I have seeq f| 



