1 88 THOSE OTHER ANIMALS. 



life. After choosing a suitable home in the hollow of a tree, 

 they snugly establish themselves there, bring up their families, 

 store it with nuts and grain for the winter, line it with dry 

 moss, and convert it into one of the most cosy of abodes. 



The squirrel is gifted with a large share of curiosity ; he 

 takes a lively interest in all that is going on around him, 

 and appears to be particularly interested in man. When 

 walking or driving through districts in the United States 

 where the squirrel abounds, scores of these little creatures 

 will leap up on to fallen trunks of trees, rails, or other 

 vantage points by the side of the track, and watch the 

 coming passenger, and will not move until he is within a 

 few paces of them, unless, indeed, he is armed with a gun, 

 in which case they, as well as birds, soon come to under- 

 stand that he is dangerous. The squirrel, like the rat, is 

 excellent eating, although even where he abounds many 

 persons have as great a prejudice against eating it as the 

 ordinary English farmer would have against that real 

 delicacy, a rat pie. Hunters, however, who shoot it for 

 its skin highly appreciate its flesh, their only regret being 

 that there is not more of it. The squirrel should never be 

 kept in captivity ; it is as gross an act of cruelty to confine 

 it as it is to cage a skylark. If it is a punishment to 

 man to be kept in a cell, how great must be the pain to a 

 creature so restless, so full of life and activity, so happy and 

 joyous in its freedom, as the squirrel. The result, as might 

 be expected, is that, however well its wants may be attended 

 to, in the great majority of cases it speedily pines and dies. 

 If kept at all, it should be in a roomy aviary, enclosing 

 shrubs and parts of trees of a sufficient size to enable it 

 to indulge to some extent in its natural habits. 



