10 WILD NEIGHBORS CHAP. 



on the pliant limbs by slow degrees. It is many a 

 long day after they are able to chase one another 

 up and down and under and around a rough oak 

 trunk, in the liveliest game of tag ever witnessed, 

 before they can skip about the branches and leap 

 from one to the other with confidence in their 

 security. The patient mother understands this, 

 and encourages them very gently to "try, try 

 again." I remember one such lesson. The old 

 one marched ahead slowly, uttering low notes, as 

 if to say : " Come on, my dears. Don't be afraid!" 

 Every little while she would stop, and the two well- 

 grown children following would creep up to her, 

 and put their arms around her neck in the most 

 human fashion, as if protesting that it was almost 

 too hard a task. 



This loving-kindness is extended to other young 

 squirrels whenever no question of family rivalry 

 interferes, as is shown, in a most amiable way, by 

 incidents I have narrated elsewhere. 



In spite of this I do not believe that, broadly 

 speaking, the gray squirrel is a very intelligent 

 animal, or has much brain-power. On the con- 

 trary, to my mind this squirrel, except within a 

 very limited field, where a part of his brain has 

 been developed by his necessities, is an unusually 

 stupid animal. Dr. T. Wesley Mills of Montreal, 

 who has made a study of brute psychology, has 

 essayed to show that squirrels are the most intelli- 

 gent of rodents ; but even granting this (which I 



