364 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC ^lAGAZINE 



In early days fox squirrels were plentiful, 

 but never equaled the numbers of the gray 

 squirrel. They appear always to have been 

 more closely attached to their own district, for 

 we have no records of the great migrations so 

 notable in the other species. 



Fox squirrels are not only distinguished from 

 gray squirrels by their color, but are also nearly 

 twice their size, commonly attaining a weight 

 of two and sometimes nearly three pounds. 

 They are the strongest and most heavily pro- 

 portioned of all American squirrels. A de- 

 liberation of movement going with heaviness 

 of body is in marked contrast to the graceful 

 agility of most other tree squirrels. On the 

 ground they walk with a curiously awkward, 

 waddling gait, and even when hard pressed 

 climb trees with none of the dashing quickness 

 -shown by other species. They often move 

 about on the ground by a series of bounds, and 

 at such times, with broad, feathery tails undulat- 

 ing in the air, present a most graceful and at- 

 tractive sight. 



Fox and gray squirrels occupy the same dis- 

 tricts throughout most of their ranges, but 

 often become so segregated locally that the 

 gravs may be found almost exclusively along 

 bottom-lands and the fox squirrels on the higher 

 ridges, but there is no hard and fast separation 

 of haunts and the two forms usually share the 

 same woodlands. 



Much time is spent by fox squirrels on the 

 ground searching for food. When danger ap- 

 proaches, in place of promptly taking refuge in 

 a tree, as is a common habit with most tree 

 squirrels, they retreat along the ground, mount- 

 ing a stump or log now and then, to look back 

 at a suspected intruder, whose footsteps they 

 can hear at a long distance. If the hunter is 

 without a dog they may run away and be lost. 

 A dog soon forces them up a tree and if a 

 knot-hole or other hollow is available they at 

 once take refuge in it. Otherwise they hide 

 skillfully in bunches of leaves high in the top 

 or lie flat on a limb or against the trunk, slyly 

 moving to keep on the opposite side as the 

 hunter draws near. In the Mississippi Valley 

 during the crisp days when the hickory nuts 

 are falling and the trees are decked in all the 

 glories of autumn foliage, few sports afield 

 yield more pleasurable sensations than fox- 

 squirrel hunting. 



The fox squirrels become fatter than most of 

 their kind and their flesh is not so dry, al- 

 though all furnish appetizing meat. Owing to 

 their size and the (juality of their flesh, they 

 have been such desiral)le game animals that with 

 the constantly growing number of hunters and 

 the destruction of forests they have already 

 disappeared from large areas where formerly 

 abundant and are in real danger of extermina- 

 tion in the not-distant future. They are among 

 the most notable and attractive of the forest 

 animals in the Eastern States, and before it is 

 too late every effort should be made to protect 

 them from overshooting. With reasonable con- 

 servation they will continue to thrive and keep 

 some of the old-time primitive spirit in our 



woods. Formerly they had the same predilec- 

 tion as the gray squirrel for the farmers' corn 

 fields and were under the ban, but their num- 

 bers are now so reduced that they give little 

 trouble in this way. In some city parks where 

 they have been introduced, they soon become 

 tame and do well, except that in losing their 

 fear of- man they become subject to many ac- 

 cidents. 



Fox squirrels, like many others of their kind, 

 have homes both in knot-holes or other hollows 

 in tree trunks, and in bulky nests of sticks and 

 leaves high up among the branches. Both kinds 

 of nesting places are often located in the same 

 tree, the owner living in the outside nest in 

 warm weather and retiring to the shelter of 

 the hollow trunk in severe weather or to escape 

 an enemy. The young, two to four in number, 

 are usually born in March or April, and it is 

 not definitely known whether there is a second 

 litter. These squirrels have a barking call as 

 well as several other rather deep-toned chuck- 

 ing notes. 



They are as omnivorous as any of their kind, 

 eating many kinds of nuts, seeds, fruits, mush- 

 rooms, insects, birds, Ijirds' eggs, and other 

 flesh food when available. The principal nuts 

 in their haunts are hickory-nuts, beechnuts, 

 walnuts, pecan nuts, and the seeds of pines 

 and cypresses. Toward the end of summer and 

 in fall they work busily gathering and storing 

 food for winter in hollow trees, in old logs, 

 about the roots of trees, and in any other snug 

 ' place where it may be kept safely until needed. 

 Many single nuts are buried here and there in 

 little pits three or four inches deep dug in the 

 soft surface of the earth under the trees. These 

 scattered stores are located when needed by 

 the acute sense of smell which the owners 

 possess. 



THE ABERT SQUIRREL (Sciurus aberti 



and its subspecies) 



{For iUiistrafinji. sec page 550) 



THE KAIBAB SQUIRREL (Sciurus 

 kaibabensis) 



{For illiistratioit. sec page ^jo) 



Among the many kinds of s(|uirrels which 

 lend animation and charm to the forests of 

 North and South America, none equal in beauty 

 the subjects of this sketch — the Abert and the 

 Kaibab squirrels. These are the only American 

 squirrels endowed with conspicuous ear tufts, 

 which character they share with the squirrels 

 occupying the forests in the northern parts of 

 the Old World from F.ngland to Japan. In 

 weight they about equal a large gray squirrel, 

 but are shorter and distinctly more heavily pro- 

 portioned, with broader and more feathery tails. 



Their range covers the pine-forested region 

 of the southern Rocky Mountains in the United 

 States and the Sierra Madre of western Mex- 

 ico. The Abert squirrel and its several sub- 

 species is the more widely distributed, being 

 found from northern Colorado, south through 



