116 KESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 



seeds of the size and shape of the small white bean of com- 

 merce. These cones would be unmanageable by the squirrel 

 in the tree, and he has the habit, so common in the family, of 

 dropping them to the ground, where he can dissect them at 

 leisure. This he usually does early in the morning, climbing 

 to the extremities of the topmost branches, where the cones 

 hang, and cuttiug off a sufficient number to supply his wants 

 for the day. He then descends, and, commencing at the base 

 of the cone, tears off the scales in rapid succession, and skil- 

 fully possesses himself of the seeds which they conceal. He 

 is compelled, however, to supply other wants than his own, for 

 the smaller pine-squirrel {Sciurus douglasii) and the ground- 

 squirrel [Tamias townsendii) appropriate a large share of his 

 booty. When oak-trees are near, and acorns are ripe, he has 

 recourse to them for subsistence ; as often as opportunity offers, 

 robbing the woodpeckers of their stores, in which also he has 

 the active co-operation of his more diminutive congeners. 

 From the fact that he feeds upon the ground, it has been sup- 

 posed that he was less active and less fitted for climbing than 

 most tree-squirrels. This, I think, is not true. He is exceed- 

 ingly quick and graceful in his movements ; and if less fre- 

 quently seen to spring from tree to tree than the black and 

 gray squirrels of the eastern states, it is because he inhabits 

 coniferous trees, which are remarkable for the insignificance 

 of their branches compared with the size of the trunk, the 

 limbs never stretching out and interlocking, as those of the oak 

 and maple and other trees, in which our common species live." 

 The Californian pine-squirrel [Sciurus douglasii) inhabits the 

 pine and redwood forests of the state. He is gray above and 

 red beneath, with a black stripe separating the two colors. 

 He lives in a burrow or hollow log, but climbs well, and ob- 

 tains his food chiefly from the pine-cones, which he cuts off 

 in numbers at a time, and tears to pieces at his leisure, after 

 they have fallen to the ground. He lays up a store of the 

 seed in his burrow, for his winter supply. He is quick in his 

 motions, graceful in his attitudes, and shy in his habits. 



