Jan. 1, 1866.] 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



nest during the mouth of July, for the mamma to 

 bring forth and rear her offspring in. I carefully 

 watched them from day to clay, and with the ex- 

 ception of an occasional scolding, they took little 

 heed of my presence. A hollow place was first 

 cleared under one of the cross timbers of the saw- 

 pit, then both worked hard bringing blades of dried j 

 grass, leaves, and moss. I observed they carefully 

 collected fragments of rag, and pieces of paper left 

 by the sawyers ; so, to gratify this taste for the use 

 of novel material, I brought out continually small 

 buudles, composed of coloured threads, rags, paper, 

 fragments of scarlet cloth, and small portions of gold 

 and silver lace from my fishing tackle stock; all 

 these were greedily seized on, and woven into the 

 nest, that, when completed, after about sixteen days' 

 work, presented the most extraordinary appearance 

 imaginable. Such a nuptial nest no squirrel ever 

 had before, or, perhaps, will ever have again. I am 

 sure they were proud of their achievement, and 

 deemed it a triumph of squirrel architecture. 



The family indue time came into the world; but 

 any attempt to approach the nest was resented so 

 furiously, yet combined with such evident terror 

 for the safety of their babies, that I had not the 

 heart to gratify my curiosity to see how many there 

 were, and what they were like. Nearly three 

 weeks passed, when the love of prying overcame 

 all other scruples, and a peep into the snug, cosy, 

 chequered retreat was irresistible. Separating 

 with the utmost caution the walls of the entrance- 

 hole, three baby squirrels were visible, — such queer 

 little annimals, they seemed all eyes and tail. The 

 papa and mamma were both loud in their remon- 

 strances, and frightfully angry at the impertinent 

 intrusion ; but as I did not touch the infants, and, 

 as far as practicable, mended the torn entrance, why 

 it appeared to me there was not much ground for 

 complaint. 



Visiting my pets on the following day, imagine 

 my surprise at finding the nest empty, and the old 

 and young vanished together. Eirst I thought 

 some poaching weasel had murdered the innocents ; 

 but no : the old ones had carried them away into 

 some other retreat, because I had looked at them, 

 and meddled with the nest. 



Instinct here appears vastly near akin to reason ; 

 what had happened once, the "Store-keeper" evi- 

 dently thought might occur again, and wisely took 

 the precautionary measure of concealment, selecting 

 a spot unknown to the intruder. 



Its name, " Ogress Squirrel," arises from a 

 singular Indian tradition, that I think is quite worth, 

 as it shows us how readily uncivilized man seizes on 

 the supernatural to account for everything beyond 

 his comprehension. Spiritual agencies and wild 

 myths form subjects for the daily chat round the 

 lodge fire ; everything becomes mysterious that is 

 not understood ; the very language of the Red- 



man is a tangled chaos of symbols, figures, and 

 metaphors. 



A prominent performer in all their legends is a 

 terrible old woman, half witch, half ogress, of very 

 doubtful reputation, armed with teeth like a wolf, 

 and the claws of a grizzly-bear ; her entire time spent 

 in doing evil, eating children, and waging unceasing- 

 war on the good and virtuous. 



To make the story brief, it seems this amiable old 

 lady (at some period far away in the dim history of 

 the past) spied a fat, dainty, young " Red-skin," the 

 son of a brave and good chief, playing by the side of 

 a mountain burn, not far from the wigwam of its 

 parents. With wily words of endearment, and 

 holding out a basket filled with ripe berries and 

 gaudy flowers, the witch-woman coaxed the baby 

 savage within reach of her terrible claws ; as she 

 clutched it, the father and mother saw their loved 

 one's peril, too late to rescue, to save, beyond all 

 human power ; there was but one chance, one last frail 

 hope to cling to; falling on their knees, both prayed, 

 and in the agony of despair, besought the " Great 

 Spirit" to use his power and save their child ; give 

 it back to them, or change it into any form, so that 

 it escape the teeth and talons of the dreaded ogress. 

 The prayer was heard, and the boy assuming at once 

 the form of a tiny squirrel, deftly slipped from out 

 her grip ; but not unscathed, the marks inflicted by 

 four of her claws remain to this day on its back as 

 evidence of the story's truthfulness. 



Heuce it is that Indian boys seldom kill this 

 squirrel, ill luck befalling all such profane trans- 

 gressors, and that c: medicine men" (the doctors and 

 conjurors of the tribes) wear its skin as a potent and 

 all-powerful charm. 



The " Store-keeper bearing on its back the marks 

 of the wicked old woman's" finger nails, may be seen 

 by any who choose to visit the British Museum, where 

 a specimen I shot is set up very near the " Rock 

 Whistler." 



The Robin. — There are many anecdotes of the 

 sanguinary habits of the Robin. I have to add 

 another to the list. Many years since, during a very 

 severe winter, I was looking into an enclosed yard, 

 where I saw a Robin pecking furiously at another 

 Robiu that was dead. Seeing no cause for this 

 animosity, I went to the birds, and found that the 

 head of the dead one had been entirely deprived of 

 its feathers by its antagonist, but for wbat purpose I 

 could not then ascertaiu. A short time after, I had 

 occasion to enter the yard again, and seeing the dead 

 bird still there, I took it up, and perceived that the 

 back of its skull was broken, and all the brains 

 scooped out by his enemy ; thus explaining why he 

 had worked so hard, and proving that Robin Red- 

 breast is a Cannibal. — /. B. A. 



B 2 



