226 MONOGRAPH OF THE GENUS SCIURUS. 



from a scarcity of food, or from some other inexplicable in- 

 stinct, to leave its native haunts, and seek for adventures or 

 for food in some distant and, to him, unexplored portion of 

 our land. The newspapers from the west contain frequent 

 details of these migrations ; they appear to have been more 

 frequent in former years than at the present time. The far- 

 mers in the western wilds regard them with sensations which 

 may be compared to the anxious apprehensions of the east- 

 ern nations at the flight of the devouring locust. At such 

 periods, which usually occur in autumn, the squirrels congre- 

 gate in different districts of the far north-west, and, in irre- 

 gular troops, bend their way instinctively in an eastern direc- 

 tion. Mountains and cleared fields, — the head waters of lakes 

 and broad rivers, — present no unconquerable impediments. — 

 Onward they come, devouring on their way everything that is 

 suited to a squirrel's taste, — laying waste the corn and wheat 

 fields of the farmer ; and as their numbers are thinned by the 

 gun, the dog and the club, others are ready to fall in the rear 

 and fill up the ranks, till they occasion infinite mischief and 

 call forth no empty threats of revenge. It is often enquired 

 how these little creatures that, on common occasions, have 

 such an instinctive dread of water, are enabled to cross broad 

 and rapid rivers, like the Ohio and Hudson for instance. It 

 is usually asserted, and believed by many, that they carry to 

 the shore a suitable piece of bark, and seizing the opportuni- 

 ty of a favourable breeze, seat themselves upon this substitute 

 for a boat, hoist their broad tails as a sail, and float safely to 

 the opposite shore. This, together with many other traits of 

 intelligence ascribed to this species, I suspect to be apocry- 

 phal. That they do migrate at irregular, and occasionally at 

 distant periods, is a fact sufficiently established ; but in the 

 only instance in which I had an opportunity of witnessing 

 the migrations of the squirrel, it appeared to me that he was 

 not only an unskilful sailor, but a clumsy swimmer. It was 

 (as far as my recollection serves me of the period of early life) 

 in the autumn of 1808 or 9 ; troops of squirrels suddenly and 

 unexpectedly made their appearance in the neighbourhood, 

 but among the grey ones were varieties not previously seen in 

 those parts; some were broadly striped with yellow on the 

 sides, and a few with a black stripe on each side, bordered 

 with yellow or brown, resembling the stripes of the little chip- 

 ping squirrel (Tamias Lysteri). They swam the Hudson in 

 various places between Waterford and Saratoga; those which 

 I observed crossing the river were swimming deep and awk- 

 wardly, their bodies and tails wholly submerged ; several that 

 had been drowned were carried downward by the stream, and 



