SCIURUS CAROLINENSIS LEUCOTIS. I3I 



In the year 1749 they invaded Pennsylvania in such vast hosts as 

 to endanger the crops of the entire inhabited portion of the State, 

 and a reward of three pence a head was offered for their destruction. 

 This necessitated the payment of eight thousand pounds sterHng (six 

 hundred and forty thousand individuals having been killed), which so 

 depleted the treasury that the premium was decreased one-half. 

 Commenting upon this statement Pennant observed: "How im- 

 proved must the state of the Americans then be, in thirty-five 

 years, to wage an expensive and successful war against its parent 

 country, which before could not bear the charges of clearing the 

 provinces from the ravages of these insignificant animals ! "* 



Since nearly all parts of our great country have become popu- 

 lated, since thousands of square miles of forests have been hewn 

 down, and the lands tilled and made to yield to the wants of man, 

 there has been such a vast decrease in the numbers of these animals 

 that it is doubtful if another great migration will ever be recorded. 

 It was their enormous abundance in former times, and the extensive 

 depredations which they committed in the autumn, that caused the 

 inhabitants to organize for their destruction. Robert Munro, in 

 "A Description of the Genesee Country," published in 1804, states 

 that in the western part of New York, " Squirrels are so numerous in 

 some years as considerably to injure corn ; and upwards of 2000 of 

 them have sometimes been killed in a day, which is occasionally ap- 

 pointed for that purpose by the inhabitants ; the most common kinds 

 of them are the black, and the red ; the grey coloured being very 

 scarce." f Aside from the constant warfare which every man 

 waged against those upon his own premises, there came to be 

 established a much more effective system of extermination. Certain 

 days were set apart, and every male person capable of carrying 

 a gun, and who owned or could borrow one to carry, was sup- 

 posed to join in the chase. Captains were appointed, sides 



* Pennant's Arctic Zoology, Vol. I, 1792, p. 136. 



\ Documentary History of New York, Vol. II, p. 11 75. 



