A HERMIT'S WILD FRIENDS 



ance of being unsexed, except in the mating 

 season. 



The gray is no match for the red in a tree- 

 top in a trial of speed. He usually keeps to 

 the ground, where his long leaps give him the 

 advantage over his fiery little foe. Many a 

 sprinting match of this kind takes place in 

 my dooryard. If a red surprises a gray 

 squirrel stealing food, he sounds his war-cry, 

 and in a mad rush is on to the gray before 

 he can make off with the bit of food which 

 he has appropriated. The gray, finding that 

 he is hard pressed, runs around the cabin with 

 the red hot at his heels. Round and round 

 they go, the gray silent, the red yelling like 

 a little demon. When the gray has had 

 several narrow escapes, he drops the food 

 and retreats unmolested. The red picks up 

 the food and takes it to a favorite limb, where 

 he devours it, talking to himself, meanwhile, 

 about "that gray thief." 



In all my years of observation, once only 

 have I known a gray squirrel to fight a red. I 

 think it was hunger and desperation that in- 

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