1918] 



The Ottawa Naturalist 



U 



it reach out and pull off a bud with a single paw, 

 folding the toes against the palm in doing so, and 

 also place a piece of a leaf in its mouth with one 

 paw. 



BALANCING OF OBJECTS. 



The squirrel is most expert in balancing objects 

 on branches. Usually it selects either a crotch or 

 the somewhat flat surface at the point at which a 

 horizontal branch comes off from the limb as the 

 place of deposition. When placing anything in 

 position it shifts it a trifle to one side or the other 

 with its paws or muzzle and does not leave it until 

 it is as securely lodged as possible. It succeeds in 

 balancing nuts in situations in which I should not 

 like to undertake to balance them. I noticed that 

 when it hung a long strip of ham-rind, an article 

 of diet with which it can hardly have had previous 

 experience, on a branch it shifted it until the two 

 ends hung equally on each side of the branch. Out 

 of the scores of times that I have seen it balancing 

 objects I have only once seen it let anything fall, 

 and upon this occasion it made a most strenuous 

 effort to catch it but failed. 



RESTING. 



The squirrel does not often rest. It is almost 

 ceaselessly active from early morning till dark, and 

 during this time it is eating almost continuously. 

 However it does rest, and even sleep, occasionally. 

 Its favorite resting-position is spread out along a 

 limb, with its legs out straight in front and behind 

 and with its chin resting on its fore-paws. When 

 it composes itself for a nap it hunches itself up, rests 

 its chin on the limb, and flattens its tail down along 

 its back. I have only once seen it go right off to 

 sleep as a rule its eyes are closed completely only 

 for a moment at a time. 



It has certain favorite places for resting, the 

 most favored situation being on a rather small, nearly 

 horizontal, branch at the point where it comes off 

 from a larger branch. Here it sits with its posterior 

 end against the larger branch in such a way that it 

 gives one the impression that it "fits in" there. 



I have seen it stretch first one paw and then the 

 other and yawn. It often rubs its jaw and throat 

 along a limb, in this respect reminding one very 

 much of the actions of a cat. 



WASHING. 

 After it has eaten anything sticky or greasy it 

 licks its forepaws very thoroughly and then rubs 

 them over its nose. It sometimes spends five minutes 

 , thus cleaning up. 

 ^v SCRATCHING. 



X^^uring tfie winter it did not seem to be troubled 

 ^ ^K insects, but in the early spring they apparently 

 it a busy time. It scratched and bit itself very 



frequently and often for some time at a stretch, 

 causing the shedding hairs of its winter coat to fly 

 in all directions. 



"freezing." 



Upon two occasions when a hawk flew over, and 

 upon another when it caught a sound like the scream 

 of a hawk, the squirrel "froze", remaining abso- 

 lutely motionless for three minutes or more. As 

 soon as it moved it exploded into a loud and long- 

 continued chatter. 



PSYCHOLOGY. 



In the study of any animal the most interesting 

 thing, and at the same time the phase of the subject 

 in which we have to proceed most cautiously in 

 drawing conclusions, is its mentality. My close 

 observation of the squirrel during the past eight 

 months has given me some glimpses of the psychology 

 of this animal. 



The sense of ownership is a mental attribute which 

 seems to be well developed. This squirrel appears 

 to regard the sugar maple as its own private pre- 

 serve. All through the winter it drove away any 

 house sparrows which perched in it. Toward spring 

 another squirrel sometimes came into this tree, and 

 this always resulted in a great deal of barking and 

 chattering, and ended in the retreat of the intruder, 

 hotly pursued. This squirrel was also a male and 

 was as large and apparently as strong as the 

 "owner" of the tree, but it fled without putting up 

 a fight. Once this second squirrel came into the 

 tree when the "owner" was away, and finding 

 some pieces of meat it proceeded to eat them in 

 such a hurry that it choked. 



The squirrel watches the things it has stored in 

 the tree most jealously. Upon several occasions a 

 white-breasted nuthatch has come and pecked at 

 some of this food, and whenever this has been ob- 

 served by the squirrel it has come on the jump and 

 driven it away. Once the nuthatch came and 

 pecked at a piece of meat, the squirrel drove it 

 away, and then as the nuthatch flew the squirrel 

 bounded over to another piece of meat as if it 

 anticipated an attempt upon that piece also. 



Does the squirrel know where it has placed 

 things? This question has frequently been dis- 

 cussed and I can answer it most decidedly in the 

 affirmative, as time after time I have seen it go by the 

 nearest route to something it had stored and proceed 

 to eat it. I am not prepared to say that it never 

 forgets anything, indeed if it did not it would imply 

 a far better memory than that of a human being. 



Curiosity is an attribute which the squirrel ex- 

 hibits to a marked degree. Any new object is at 

 once seen, carefully approached and investigated. 

 It seems as if the squirrel's method of investigation 

 entails not only smelling a thing but trying it with 



c^> 



