THE RED SQUIREEL KLUGH 497 



That a restricted home range is decidedly advantageous is readily 

 seen, as within this area the squirrel laiows every tree and limb, every 

 jump from one tree to another, and every hole, either in a tree or in 

 the ground, so that its chances of escape when pursued by an enemy 

 are much enhanced, 



ABUNDANCE 



The abundance of this species varies, not only from place to place, 

 but apparently also from one season to another. In the original pine 

 forests of Ontario, at the time the first cutting operations were going 

 on, I should place the abundance of the red squirrel at not more than 

 one to every 20 acres, and in the original maple-beech woods about 

 the same. In the spruce woods of New Brunswick there are, as 

 nearly as I can ascertain, about two squirrels to every hundred yards 

 square. At Grand Bend, Ontario, on the shore of Lake Huron, in 

 a piece of country with a mixed forest consisting of pine, hemlock, 

 cedar, oak (red and white), beech, maple, butternut, and hickory, I 

 found more red squirrels in the spring of 1923 than I have seen at any 

 other place, and a census showed nine squirrels to the acre. Merriam 

 (1884) says, "In seasons when mast is plentiful there seems to be a 

 squirrel for every tree, bush, stump and log in the entire wilderness, 

 besides a number left over to fill possible vacancies. Wlien, on the 

 other hand, the nut crop has been a failure, a corresponding diminu- 

 tion in the numbers of squirrels is observable, and they are sometimes 

 actually scarce." The superabundance just quoted must certainly be 

 u most unusual circumstance. The greatest local abundance which 

 1 have seen was 17 red squirrels in a group of 5 butternut trees in 

 early September in a region in which these trees were scarce, and 

 neither before nor since have I seen anything like such numbers 

 gathered together. 



Dice and Sherman (1922) report the numbers found in different 

 habitats in Michigan as follows : black ash swamp, 1 ; cedar swamp, 3 ; 

 black spruce-tamarack bog, 2 ; hemlock forest, 1 ; white pine forest, 1 ; 

 wet hardwood forest, 9 ; dry hardwood forest, 7 ; shrub stage of hard- 

 wood forest, 1 ; paper birch-aspen woods, 3 ; early hardwood stage of 

 forest, 1. 



MIGRATION 



The red squirrel is certainly nonmigratory except under very un- 

 usual circumstances. Such circumstances seem to prevail in the 

 Adirondacks as Merriam (1884) says: "James Higby tells me that 

 in June, 1877, he saw as many as 50 crossing Big Moose Lake, and 

 that they were all headed the same way — to the north. I am in- 

 formed by Dr. A. K. Fisher that at the southern end of Lake George, 

 in early autumn, it is sometimes an every day occurrence to see red 

 squirrels swimming across the lake, from west to east — never in the 



