SQUIRRELS 55 



which speaks much for the readiness with which such 

 animals adapt themselves to new and difficult move- 

 ments, and which shows how highly developed those 

 parts of the brain must be which are concerned in the 

 balancing and kindred functions. I may here correct 

 another statement of the same authors. They maintain 

 that squirrels do not lap fluids as the dog and cat. 

 From repeated observations I know this to be an error, 

 so far as the Ground Squirrel is concerned at least. 



It has usually been assumed that squirrels, and 

 indeed most rodents, feed wholly on vegetable food, 

 and that in those instances in which the contrary has 

 been observed, there was evidence of a perverted or 

 morbid appetite. Audubon and Bachmann, however, 

 state that the Flying Squirrel (Pteromys volucella, Des.) 

 has been caught in traps baited with meat. A number 

 of writers,* especially within the past few years, have 

 drawn attention to flesh-eating habits in several rodents, 

 mostly under peculiar circumstances. Some interest- 

 ing questions arise in this connection : (1) In how far 

 is any rodent carnivorous when abundance of all the 

 different kinds of vegetable food that the animal uses 

 is at hand ? (2) What is the relation between 

 confinement and altered appetites ? (3) In how far are 

 such altered appetites evidence of morbid or perverted 

 conditions, and in how far simply the expression of 

 physiological needs ? The whole subject, I am inclined 

 to~ "think, might be placed on a broad and sound 

 physiological foundation, but before that can be done, 

 many accurate observations are required, and possibly 

 also many series of experiments. If we may judge by 

 the common house rat, rodents possess unusual plasticity 

 as to feeding and other habits, and not less as regards 

 their mental life. I found that my Chipmunk would 



* Science, vol. viii ; Canadian Naturalist, vol. iii. 



