MONOGRAPH OF THE GENUS SCIURUS. 223 



leaves, with which a compact nest is constructed, which, in 

 the inner side, is sometimes lined with such mosses as are 

 found on the bark of trees. In the preparation of this nest 

 a pair is usually engaged, for an hour in the morning, 

 during several successive days ; and the noise they make in 

 cutting the branches, and dragging them with their leaves to 

 the nests, can be heard at a great distance. In winter they 

 reside altogether in holes of trees, where their young, in most 

 instances, are brought forth. Although a family to the num- 

 ber of five or six, probably the produce of a pair from the 

 preceding season, may occupy the same nest during winter, 

 yet they all pair off in spring, when each couple seems to oc- 

 cupy a separate nest, in order to engage in the duties of re- 

 production. The young, in number from four to six, are, in 

 the northern states, brought forth in May ; they are of quick 

 growth, and sufficiently advanced in a few weeks to leave the 

 nest : at such times they are seen clinging around the tree 

 which contains their domicile, and as soon as .alarmed they 

 run to the hole, when one of them usually returns, and, pro- 

 truding his head out of the hole, watches the movements of 

 the intruder. In this stage of growth they are easily captur- 

 ed ; their hole is stopped up, another opening is made be- 

 neath, and they are taken out by the hand protected by a glove. 

 They soon become tolerably gentle, and are frequently kept 

 in cages with a wheel attached, in which, as in the interior of 

 a tread-mill, they amuse themselves in playing for hours to- 

 gether. Sometimes two are placed together, and they soon 

 leam to accommodate themselves to the wheel, and move to- 

 gether with great regularity. However gentle they may be- 

 come in confinement, no instance has come to my knowledge 

 of their having produced young in a state of domestication ; 

 although in a suitable cage such a result would in all proba- 

 bility be produced. A tame squirrel is, however, a trouble- 

 some pet ; it is always ready to use its teeth on the fingers of 

 every intruder on its cage, and does not always spare even its 

 feeder ; and when permitted to have the freedom of the house, 

 it soon incurs the displeasure of the prudent housewife by its 

 habit of gnawing chairs, tables, and books. 



During the breeding season the males, like those of deer 

 and other species, engage in frequent contests, and often bite 

 and wound each other severely. The story of their emascu- 

 lating each other on these occasions has been so often repeat- 

 ed, that it has become a matter of history, and it would now 

 be somewhat dangerous to set it down as a vulgar error. It 

 might however be advanced, on the other hand, that the ad- 

 mission of such skill and refinement in cruelty would be as- 



