SCIURUS IIUDSONIUS. I I I 



SCIURUS HUDSONIUS I'aii.-^s. 

 Red Squirrel ; Chickaree. 



The Red Squirrel is one of the coniinonest and Ijest known of the 

 mammaHan inhabitants of the Adirondacks, bein^^ found in all parts 

 of the Wilderness at all seasons of the year. 



His diet is more varied than that of our other squirrels. In addi- 

 tion to nuts and acorns he feeds upon a variety of seeds and roots, 

 the buds and leaf-stems of certain trees, several species of " toad- 

 stools" and other fun^-i, seeds from the cones of pines and spruces, 

 fruits and berries of many kinds, beetles, birds' eggs, and even young 

 birds. And in winter he does not look with disdain upon scraps ot 

 meat or fish that may have been left within his reach. 



He is the most hilarious of the pre-eminently merry and frolicsome 

 family to which he belongs, and his joyous and jubilant nature 

 enables him to triumph over the sense of gloom that pervades the 

 sombre coniferous forests of the North, rendering him cheerful and 

 contented in the darkest and most impenetrable of our evergreen 

 thickets. Indeed, it is this happy faculty of adapting himself and 

 his modes of life to a diversity of surroundings that has permitted 

 his wide dispersion, the present boundaries of his habitat being co- 

 extensive with those of the wooded portions of the northern part of 

 our continent.''' 



The Chickaree combines qualities so wholly at variance, so unique, 

 so incomprehensible, and so characteristic withal, that one scarcely 

 knows in what light to regard him. His inquisitiveness, audacity, 

 inordinate assurance, and exasperating insolence, together with his 

 insatiable love of mischief and shameless disregard of all the ordinary 

 customs and civilities of life, would lead one to suppose that he was 

 litde entitled to respect; and yet his intelligence, his untiring perse- 

 verance, and genuine industry, the cunning cleverness displayed in 

 many of his actions, and the irresistible humor with which he does 



* The species and its several geographical races are here sjioken of collectively. 



