1893II U7iinvited Guests 



less exotic than the monkey and the parrot, but Furry 

 by no means indigenous to Cahfornia. The one, ^"'^'^'^<'" 

 the Bayou Gray Squirrel — Sciurus fuliginosus — 

 seems like all his brethren to need an audience, 

 and watches the spectator as though craving ad- 

 miration. Between him and the cats there rages a 

 perpetual feud; the woodpeckers also on their 

 intermittent returns feel outraged by his raid upon 

 their storehouse in the big oak, and scold vocifer- 

 ously over his intrusion. 



j The Silver Squirrel of California — Sciurus doug- 

 lasi — the largest and handsomest of our members 

 of the tribe, is a shy animal, unfortunately, and 

 never leaves his haunts in the upland forests. Our 

 new friend belongs no doubt to the overflow from 



, Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, where his 



! sociable species has been acclimated and whence it 

 is now making its way down the Peninsula.^ 



I The other newcomer, the Opossum, is a beast of 

 very difi^erent disposition, sullen in temper and 

 skulking about by night, as he has no love for man 

 and no human trait beyond a taste for chickens. 

 Man in return finds him good only when properly 

 roasted, "Maryland style"; under these circum- 

 stances he has much the flavor of a sucking pig. 

 Native throughout the Southern states, this inter- 

 esting creature is finding for himself a congenial 

 home in our region, to which some one has pur- 

 posely brought him with an eye to future "possum 

 roasts." 



' With all forms of this type, as well as some others in America, certain 

 individuals are melanistic glossy hlack throughout, and exceedingly handsome. 

 Our first squirrel visitors were all black. 



c 517:1 



