316 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



heart was tender, and she received the orphans kindly. She 

 suckled them with her own brood for some days. They died 

 one by one, but it was not the fault of cat or kittens. So far as 

 we could see her behaviour towards them throughout was 

 of the gentlest and most motherly description. 



In a box which I set up in a thick hemlock near my house 

 in Connecticut, the Squirrel elsewhere described as the " singer," 

 rears her brood each year. In June I often see the little ones 

 following the old one in a sort of procession through the trees. 

 This is no doubt their training. The mother knows and teaches 

 them all the leaps and bridges, as well as the harvest trees in 

 their overhead world. 



On June i, 1905, in Wyndygoul Park, a Red-squirrel, 

 apparently a young of this year, but already two-thirds grown, 

 was climbing under the eaves of the house, and seemed to be 

 catching and eating insects. It lost its hold several times on 

 the smooth woodwork, and once it fell with a heavy flop to the 

 brick terrace eight feet below. It seemed hurt and rubbed its 

 head with both paws in a comical way for a few moments, then 

 ran off to its proper home in the trees. 



It was interesting to note that it rubbed its head. Had the 

 hurt been elsewhere it would have licked it. In either case the 

 treatment must be considered an instinctive application of 

 massage to the bruised place. 



My journal at Cos Cob, Conn., for June 11, 1905, has the 

 following: Small Red-squirrels now running alone, they are 

 very red and have very big tails. Again, on June 15, I find 

 this: The young Red-squirrels of the Singer family are very 

 red in colour and fearless in behaviour. They sometimes fol- 

 low the old ones and sometimes run alone. 



I think they are not weaned till late in August; at least 

 certain of them are not. The following notes show that some 

 broods are very late. 



August 24, 1888, at Lome Park, near Toronto, Ontario, a 

 family of half-grown Red-squirrels was found in a stub to-day; 

 the mother carried them off one by one to a distant tree, where 

 she hid them high up from view. 



