542 'Journal of Comparative Neurology and Psychology. 



Locally, he lives in wooded tracts and he is especially numerous 

 where nut-bearing trees and plants abound. If we include the many 

 varieties of this order in the statement, the squirrel may be said 

 to make his home in burrows under the ground, among the roots of 

 large trees, in fallen logs, and lastly in knot-holes and in nests built 

 high up in the trees themselves. The varieties studied here are 

 chiefly arboreal, leaving their trees only for food and water and when 

 other exigencies demand travel. 



The food of the squirrel is the '^fruit and buds of the trees among 

 which he makes his home." He is also, under some conditions, in- 

 sectivorous and possibly carnivorous.^ That he is naturally the 

 latter is questioned by Wesley Mills.^ Pine and spruce seeds are 

 perhaps his most common food in northern regions, and, in general, 

 the nuts indigenous to the region in which the species lives constitute 

 the basis of the food supply. 



Some species store food for the winter ; others bury the nuts in 

 the loose soil near where they fall, apparently depending upon the 

 large numbers buried and their own rapid exploring ability for the 

 recovery of nuts so hidden. Observation has not fully established 

 this point.^ The behavior of the squirrel in carrying out the storing 

 instinct has been interestingly described elsewhere.^ From our own 

 observations it is found that this instinct quickly disappears under 

 the unfavorable conditions of captivity. Experimentation is in 

 progress to determine the means by which the squirrel, almost with- 

 out error, rejects the faulty nuts and opens or buries only those that 

 are sound. 



The tree squirrel does not hibernate. Observation is, however, 

 by no means complete regarding yearly variations in the habits and 

 activities of all varieties. 



The literature is full of allusions to the agility, the skill and the 

 general intelligence of the squirrel. These stories and observations 

 are principally of the anecdotal variety. Ingersoll and Mills, in the 



^Geological Survey of New Jersey, v. 2, pt. 2, 1890, p. 500. 

 ^MiLLS, Wesley, Animal Intelligence, p. 55. 

 'See INGEBSOLL, op. cit., ch. 1. 



'H. G. Schmidt quoted by W. James, Principles of Psychology, v. 2, pp. 399. 

 400. 



