NOTES 

 THE BEHAVIOR OF A GREY SQUIRREL 



ELIOTT PARK FROST 



, Yale University 



On last Thanksgiving morning the writer's lawn was cov- 

 ered by two inches of freshly fallen snow, — a depth sufficient 

 to conceal all visible traces of the closely cropped grass. His 

 attention was called to the behavior of a large grey squirrel, 

 one of many that make their home in the neighborhood. 



When first seen the squirrel was perched upon a wooden 

 post some four feet from the ground, apparently making an 

 interested survey of the landscape. From here he leaped lightly 

 down across the snow, stopped abruptly and, raising himself 

 on his haunches for an instant as if to detect possible disturbers, 

 burrowed his nose in the snow and brought forth a buried 

 nut. This he took in his mouth the length of the lawn, to the' 

 southerly, lee side of a large elm, where the snow was lightly 

 fallen. Here the nut was superficially reburied under leaves, 

 paws being chiefly employed. 



Returning, the squirrel again climbed the post, surveyed the 

 white ground as before, again skimmed across the lawn, and 

 at a place 15 or 20 feet from the former cache, reclaimed another 

 nut, transferred it to the elm, and similarly buried it with the 

 first. The whole performance was repeated, while the writer 

 watched, until eight nuts were brought together in one single 

 cache. Three times he failed to climb the post before securing 

 the nut. Once he burrowed without apparent result, but no 

 further search was made. No two nuts were taken from the 

 same place. Each nut found was unerringly detected and 

 appropriated from under the untracked snow. At the conclu- 

 sion of his task, which was performed in most business-like 

 fashion in less than 10 minutes, the squirrel skipped away and 

 was lost to view in a large elm across the street. This was the 

 first snow-fall of the season. Whether the animal had weath- 

 ered previous winters, the writer does not know. 



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