312 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



the original spot, and two that died some weeks after, were 

 found within fifty yards of the place where they got their liberty. 

 The others disappeared. 



From these various facts I conclude that in a district 

 of abundant food a Red-squirrel may pass its life on a few 

 acres. In a region of scarcer food it must range farther, but if 

 driven half a mile from home it may be an utter stranger to the 

 locality. The cases noted in the chapter on swimming are 

 exceptional. 



HOW This species is never seen in vast numbers like the Gray- 



ABUN- . 1 r 1 T- 



DANT squirrel oi the hast. 



When the authorities of Bronx Park, N. Y., decided to thin 

 out the Red-squirrels for the sake of the song birds and the 

 Gray-squirrels, they killed 6o of them in the 200 acres of wood- 

 land, leaving about a dozen. The woods had been well 

 stocked with Red-squirrels, from which we may infer that a 

 Squirrel to every three acres is abundance. 



I found it more numerous at Kenora than anywhere else 

 in the country, and there I doubt if they would average one 

 Squirrel to every three acres of pinewoods. In the western 

 part of Manitoba it is much less abundant. Possibly a pair of 

 Red-squirrels to every square mile of the country is the highest 

 average we can allow. Where there are neither cone-bearers 

 nor oaks there are no Squirrels. 



I see no difference in the number during recent times. It 

 seems as numerous now as twenty years ago. 



sociA- Red-squirrels will play together, chasing each other among 



the trees, but I never saw two of them unite to defeat an enemy 

 or to undertake some work too heavy for single effort. One 

 may give the alarm call on finding a lurking foe, but it seems 

 to utter it as a menace to the foe not as a warning to its friends. 

 I have, I believe, seen both parents (near Toronto) gathering 

 cedar bark for the nest; and, of course, the young are often 

 seen in late summer following the mother, but these two cases, 

 being family affairs, do not prove true sociability. 



BILITY 



