WILD NEIGHBORS 



OUR GRAY SQUIRRELS 



DOWN past my window, as I sit writing beside 

 it, falls a twig from the black oak at the corner 

 of the house. Half a minute later another sinks 

 wavering downward, buoyed by its broad leaves, 

 which are green and healthy. This happens in 

 July, far in advance of their natural time to fall. 

 What is the cause ? A glance informs me. One 

 of our gray squirrels is out on the end of an over- 

 hanging limb, and I am just in time to see him 

 bite off another leafy twig and carry it away. It 

 is evident that he had dropped the other one acci- 

 dentally. What is he doing ? I vault out of the 

 window, and keep him in view as he makes his 

 way nearly to the summit of a tall white oak, 

 where he leaves his branch as a contribution to a 

 half bushel or so of sticks and leaves lodged in a 

 convenient notch. Another squirrel is there, and 

 together they scramble over the mass, packing and 

 entangling it together, and occasionally disappear- 



