MONOGRAPH OF THE GENUS SCIURUS. 385 



chestnuts were taken from a hollow tree occupied by a single 

 pair of these industrious creatures. Generally the quantity is 

 considerably less. It must however be remarked, that the 

 chickaree has too much foresight to trust to a single hoard, 

 often having several in different localities. Sometimes they 

 are found under leaves, or beneath logs and brush-heaps, and 

 at other times are contained in holes in the ground. These 

 stores are sometimes only temporarily deposited in some con- 

 venient situation, to be removed at leisure. When, for in- 

 stance, nuts are abundant in autumn, large quantities in the 

 green state, covered by their thick envelope, are collected in 

 a heap near the tree whence they have fallen ; they are then 

 covered up with leaves, until the pericarp, or thick outer co- 

 vering, either falls off or opens, when the squirrel is able to 

 carry off the nuts more conveniently. But Providence has 

 placed much food of a different kind within its reach, during 

 winter. The cones of many of our pines and firs in high 

 northern latitudes are persistent during winter, and the chick- 

 aree can be supported by these, even should his other hoards 

 fail. 



This little squirrel seems also to accommodate itself to its 

 situation in another respect. In Pennsylvania and New York, 

 where the winters are comparatively mild, it is very commonly 

 satisfied with a hollow tree as a winter's residence ; but in 

 Maine, Lower Canada, and farther north, it usually seeks for 

 an additional protection from the cold, by forming deep bur- 

 rows in the earth. Nothing is more common than to meet 

 with five or six squirrel-holes in the ground, near the roots of 

 some white pine or hemlock ; and these retreats can be easily 

 found by the vast heaps of scales from the cones of pines and 

 firs which are, in process of time, accumulated. 



This species, as well as the little ground squirrel, is very 

 commonly found along fences near wheat-fields, and appears, 

 in autumn, to confine itself more exclusively to wheat and 

 buckwheat than any of our larger squirrels. 



It is one of the noisiest of our species, and its querulous 

 notes of chick-chick-chick-a-7'ee — chick-a-ree can be heard 

 among the white pines and hemlocks, at nearly all hours of 

 the day. It is easily approached, and rarely conceals itself 

 from the presence of man. Its flesh is juicy and tender. 



16. Columbia Pine Squirrel. Sciurus RichardsoniL 



Small Brown Squirrel ; Lewis and Clarke, vol. iii. p. 37. 

 Sciurus Hudsonius, var. (3; Richardson, Fauna Boreali-Ameri- 

 cana, p. 190. 



