SQUIRRELS, BEAVERS, DORMICE, AND RATS 227 



against the trunk and moves the limbs alternately and inde- 

 pendently. When on the ground, however, it progresses by a 

 series of short bounds, and does not walk. It takes bold leaps 

 from branch to branch, foreshadowing distinctly in this move- 

 ment the specialisation of allied genera and families, some of 

 which develop a regular parachute expansion of skin between the 

 limbs. The broad plumed tail of the squirrel undoubtedly assists 

 this flight through the air, in which the limbs are spread out 



horizontally. 



The food of this pretty Rodent is somewhat varied. The 

 staple of its diet is fruit, nuts, and seeds, but the squirrel could 

 easily, under force of circumstances, develop into a flesh-eating 

 animal. It is certainly addicted to eating the eggs of birds, such 

 as the wood-pigeon, thrush, or robin. It is even accused of 

 devouring young nestlings. A favourite food during the autumn 

 and winter is the hazel-nut. The squirrel destroys large quan- 

 tities of pine-cones, and as its attitude towards mankind is very 

 monkey-like and " cheeky," it seems to take a pleasure in attack- 

 ing these pine-cones immediately over the head of one who has 

 retired to the forest to paint or to meditate over a book. In 

 tearing away the segments of the pine-cone to get at the pith 

 of the interior and the seeds, the squirrel showers down these 

 rather moist and sappy fragments on the human being beneath, 

 accompanying this inconvenient action by spitting and swearing 

 sounds, or else conducting this mischievous operation in profound 

 silence, and thereby startling one all the more by raining down 

 unexpectedly a mass of half-chewed debris. It also devours beech- 

 mast, acorns, and young leaf shoots, tender bark, buds, and 

 flowers. The sharp and pointed lower incisors easily pierce the 

 soft rind of the young nut. When the hazel-nut is brown and 

 hard (as it becomes in the squirrel's winter store), a circular cut is 

 generally made right round the nut, so that the shells fall off' 

 in halves. The kernel is then taken out, and every particle of 

 brown skin is peeled off it before the nut is devoured. 



The squirrel in a really wild state lays up considerable stores 

 of food during the autumn for its use in the winter, and these 



