198 ANIMAL LIFE IN THE TOSEMITE 



the winter. Moreover, when this food is most plentiful, in the autumn, 

 the squirrels lay by a reserve, to be drawn upon later as needed. The 

 greatest activity on the part of the Gray Squirrels comes in the fall months, 

 when the season for acorns and pine cones is at its height, and when the 

 squirrels embrace the opportunity to gather in reserve supplies. These 

 nuts they store for the most part by burial in the ground, a nut here and 

 a nut there over a considerable area in the vicinity of their headquarters. 



The only note which the California Gray Squirrel has been heard to 

 utter is a coarse, harsh 'cough' or bark which to the ears of most persons 

 is anything but pleasant. While sometimes uttered singly, the notes are 

 usually given in series of 4 to 6 at relatively short intervals ; when a squirrel 

 is excited several series of notes may be run together so as to be practically 

 continuous. The Gray Squirrel's vocabulary is thus much less varied 

 than that of the Red Squirrel. Twice, when members of our party were 

 watching Gray Squirrels up in trees, the animals were seen to beat rapidly 

 with one front foot (the left, in one of the cases, the right in the other) 

 on the limbs on which they were resting. The noise in one case sounded 

 like that made by a woodpecker. The squirrel seemed surprised or con- 

 cerned at the observer's presence and this may have stimulated the patter- 

 ing. Other mammals, for example wood rats and rabbits, are known to 

 stamp with their feet when excited. 



Gray Squirrels build nests as shelters in which to rear their young 

 and as places in which the adults can find refuge during inclement weather 

 and at night. Instead of choosing one type of location, two very different 

 sorts of places are selected, and separate kinds of nests accordingly con- 

 structed. When natural cavities, resulting from the rotting out of good- 

 sized branches, are available in oak trees, the squirrels line these cavities 

 with soft material and use them. Failing to find some appropriate shelter 

 the animals build regular nests, out in the open branch-work of trees, 

 somewhat after the manner of many birds. The case is roughly paralleled 

 by that of the Streator Wood Rat, which either builds stick 'houses' on 

 the ground or in trees, or else occupies the interior of fallen logs or crevices 

 in rocks. 



Two 'outside' nests of the Gray Squirrel were found in separate but 

 adjacent yellow pines of medium size on the divide between Bean and 

 Smith creeks, east of Coulterville, on June 6, 1915. The two were so nearly 

 alike as to location and details of construction that description of one 

 will suffice. The height of the nest above the ground was about 60 feet ; 

 it was placed against the trunk of the tree (which at that height was about 

 3 inches in diameter) and it was supported by a whorl of branches. The 

 outer, coarse framework of the nest was of yellow pine twigs 14 to i/^ inch 

 in diameter and 6 to 18 inches in length; on many of these the dried 



