I OUR GRAY SQUIRRELS 2$ 



dive down, perhaps clear out of sight, and in a 

 moment emerge with the nut in their jaws. 



Two hypotheses have been advanced in explana- 

 tion of this unerring recovery of their treasures. 

 One is that the animal remembers. But the diffi- 

 culty of assuming this, under all the circumstances, 

 is so great, that it seems easier to believe the alter- 

 native explanation, namely, that the treasure is 

 found by aid of the sense of smell. It certainly 

 seems to us that a hickory nut, after having been 

 buried three or four months, and covered with a 

 foot or two of snow, would be as unsmellable as 

 anything could be ; but it won't do to limit the 

 sensitiveness of a squirrel's nose until we know 

 more about it than we do at present. 



At any rate, nearly, if not quite all, the nuts 

 buried are exhumed before spring, for few hickory 

 or oak saplings spring up in our grove, as would 

 happen if any considerable number of seeds were 

 left in the ground. Thoreau has a great deal to 

 say on this topic in his suggestive essay on the 

 Natural History of Massachusetts (in "Walden"), 

 and credits the squirrels with doing an immense 

 amount of tree-planting. 



In confinement these squirrels will often attempt 

 to bury nuts in the floor of their cages, going 

 through the digging, covering, and patting motions 

 as if the article were really buried. A writer in 

 The American Naturalist for 1883 described this 

 behavior on the part of a flying-squirrel which had 



