SQUIRRELS. 709 



The Northern Gray Squirrel, Sciimes /aicoh^s, is the most active 

 species in the Atlantic States. It sallies forth with the sun, and for four 

 or five hours industriously searches for food. After a siesta at noon, it 

 resumes its labors. It is not, in Audubon's opinion, a very provident 

 animal, and lays in but a small stock of food in its nest, and does not 

 gather and bury any winter stores. In fact it is, in a cold climate, in a 

 state of partial torpidity requiring little food. This Squirrel is, unfor- 

 tunately, fond of green corn and young wheat, and hence is regarded 

 with hatred by the farmer. In Pennsylvania, an ancient law offered 

 three pence a head for every squirrel destroyed, and in one year, 1749, 

 eight thousand pounds sterling were spent in such payment, a sum repre- 

 senting the death of six hundred and forty thousand squirrels. 



This Squirrel is styled by Audubon the Migratory Squirrel, from the 

 long migrations it occasionally performs. At such periods they congre- 

 gate in various districts of the northwest, and turn their steps in an 

 eastern direction. "Onward they come," writes Audubon, "devouring 

 on their way everything that is suited to their taste, laying waste the 

 corn and wheat-fields of the farmer, and as their numbers are thinned 

 by the gun, the dog, and the club, others fall in and fill the ranks. It has 

 often been inquired how they cross rivers like the Hudson and the Ohio. 

 It has even been asserted that they carry to the shore a piece of bark, 

 seat themselves upon it, and hoist their tails as a sail. Unfortunately, 

 the story is not true." The same naturalist saw a migration which 

 crossed the Hudson. He says they swam clumsily. 



The Red Squirrel or Chickaree, Sciums Hndsonius (Plate LVI), 

 is the most common species around New York, and throughout the 

 Eastern States. It is fearless to a great degree of the presence of 

 man, and in its quick graceful motions from branch to branch, reminds 

 one of a bird. It is always neat and cleanly in its coat, industrious, and 

 provident. The Chickaree obtained its name from its noisy chattering 

 note which it repeats at frequent intervals. Unlike the Gray Squirrel, 

 it exhibits the greatest sprightliness amid the snows and frosts of our 

 Northern regions, and consequently consumes in winter as great a quan- 

 tity of food as at any other season. It wisely makes ample provision, 

 and the quantity of nuts it often lays up is almost incredible. It is too 

 cautious to trust a single hoard, but forms several. Shell-barks, butter- 

 nuts, and the like, it obtains by gnawing off the portion of the branch on 

 which the >-uts hang. After having thrown down a considerable quan- 



