318 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



at times to drink here. One day, having satisfied his thirst, 

 he faced about. A distant cat aroused his ire. He scolded 

 as he sat on the edge of the basin and lashed his long brush 

 over it in true Red-squirrel style, till one of the trout leaped 

 from the water and seized the tail. Of course it stripped off, 

 leaving the raw bone. The wrathy Squirrel, rushing up the 

 nearest tree, had the unique experience of seeing the trout 

 play games with his tail in the water below. He chattered and 

 scolded furiously for about five minutes, then went off. The 

 injury seemed slight; the naked part dried up and dropped off. 

 The animal was not obviously crippled, and yet, as usual, the 

 tailless one disappeared. Robbed of his rudder for the long 

 flying leap, and of the parachute to break his fall, he was 

 crippled in the struggle for life and could not long survive. 



Francis Dickie, of Carberry, Man., writes me that on 

 March 20, 1905, he found a Red-squirrel dead under a tree. 

 "The tail was gone, except half an inch of stub, which looked 

 as if chewed off, and not cut with a knife." 



POWERS How far can the Red-squirrel leap on the level ? Not more 



than five feet, I should say, after measuring many bounds re- 

 corded in the snow, where they were running to escape from 

 dogs and hunters. The wonderful leaps of fifteen or twenty 

 feet from tree to tree that one hears of, are made on a descend- 

 ing leap, in which they are greatly aided by the kiting action 

 of the flat spread body and tail. 



SWIM- The Red-squirrel of New England is known to be a strong 



and fearless swimmer. It does not hesitate to make for land a 

 mile away across the water. Dr. Merriam has some interest- 

 ing notes on the swimming of this species as observed in the 

 Adirondacks. 



"The Red-squirrel [he says^] is a good swimmer, swim- 

 ming rapidly and with much of the head, back, and tail out of 

 the water. On August 18, 1874, I was paddling silently down 

 a sluggish stream in the heart of the Adirondacks, when a slight 



• Mam. Adir., 1884, pp. 216-7. 



