Red-squirrel 



329 



winter about Carberry. I recollect especially one day in 

 December, 1884, seeing the Squirrels chasing each other about 

 in a grove of oaks and having the merriest game of tag, though 

 the thermometer registered that day 35 degrees below zero. 



I think it possible that farther north, where the winter is 

 severe, this vigorous little creature may consent to sleep during 







Fig. IIS — The Red-squirrel's playgn'ound, in a snowdrift. 



the worst of the storms, for the habit is deeply rooted in the 

 family. But this must be only for a short time, and it is ever 

 ready to resume active life on the slightest encouragement from 

 the weather. 



E. W. Nelson says® that in Alaska "the most intense cold 

 of the northern winter does not keep them in their nests more 

 than a day or two at a time." 



During the winter in northern New York State I found a 

 trail along a fence showing in the snow where some Squirrels 

 had a regular road from a barn full of corn to a little woods a 



»Nat. Hist. Alaska, 1887, p. 281. 



