506 ANNUAL EEPOET SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 192 8 



ging the cones laboriously along their winding galleries to the sur- 

 face and away over the snow to some favorite stump before attempt- 

 ing to open them." In digging these tunnels the squirrel does not 

 bring any snow to the surface, but packs it against the walls, and 

 makes a shaft to the surface either at the end of a tunnel or where 

 two tunnels connect. 



SWIMMING 



That red squirrels swim well has already been shown in the section 

 on migration, as Big Moose Lake, which they are reported as swim- 

 ming across, is about a mile and half wide, and Lake George, at 

 the point they crossed, about two miles wide. Cole (1922) saw a 

 red squirrel swim to shore after having crossed White Sand Lake, 

 Wis., and was told by a boatman that they had been doing this 

 for some days past. " The individual we saw swam calmly and 

 evenly with the head well up, shoulders nearly submerged, but rump 

 and tail high. It did not seem at all fatigued when it reached the 

 land." 



A very peculiar incident is thus described, in a letter to me, by 

 Allan Brooks: 



I was walking along a big mining ditch about 9 feet wide in which the 

 water was running swiftly when I saw a curious animal coming down the bank 

 on the other side. Presently I saw it was a red squirel staggering under the 

 load of a two-thirds grown young one wrapped round its neck just back of the 

 head. It came straight for the water and swam across, landing in front of 

 me, and climbed the bank to my feet. Here it first caught sight of me, threw 

 off the young one, jumped into the water, swam over, ran up the bank and into 

 the woods. The young one ran up me, stopped on my chest just below my 

 chin for a second or two, then ran down into the water, swam across, ran up 

 the bank and off into the woods after its mother. 



MANUAL DEXTERITY 



Though the squirrel lacks a " thumb " its dexterity with its fore 

 paws is much greater than in the case of most mammals. By taking 

 them between its paws, it handles both large and small objects with 

 precision and certainty. It can turn a smooth and slippery nut 

 round and round in its paws, and only very rarely does it let any- 

 thing drop. 



I have on three occasions seen a squirrel reach out and pull off a 

 bud with a single paw, in doing so folding the toes against the palm. 

 I have also seen a squirrel pick rose hips with one paw and convey 

 them to its mouth. 



