mar GermantGWu. 247 



ly vifible. You may then (hake the tree, throw" 

 flicks and ftones to the place where it lies, or 

 fhoot at it, yet it will never ftif. If three 

 branches join, it takes refuge between them, and 

 lies as clofe to them as poffible, and then it is 

 fufficiently fafe. Sometimes it efcapes on a tree, 

 where there are old nefts of fquirrels, or of large 

 birds : it flips into fuch, and cannot be got out, 

 either by (hooting, throwing, or any thing elfe ; 

 for the grey fquirrels feldom leap from one tree 

 to another, except extreme danger compels them. 

 They commonly run directly up the trees, and 

 down the fame way, with their head ftraight for- 

 ward. Several of them which I (hot in the 

 woods had great numbers of fleas. 



I HAVE already mentioned, that thefe fquir- 

 rels are among the animals, which at prefent are 

 more plentiful than they formerly were, and that 

 the infinitely greater cultivation of maize, which 

 is their favourite food, is the caufe of their mul- 

 tiplication. However, it is peculiar, that in 

 fome years a greater number of fquirrels come 

 down from the higher countries into Penfylvania, 

 and other Englifo colonies. They commonly 

 come in autumn, and are then very bufy in the 

 woods gathering nuts and acorns, which they 

 carry into hollow trees or their flore-holes, ia 

 order to be fufficiently provided with food for 

 winter. They are fo diligent in ftoring up of 

 provifions, that though the nuts have been ex- 

 tremely plentiful this year, yet it is difficult to 

 get a confiderable quantity of them. The peo- 

 ple here pretended, from their own experience, 

 to know, that when the fquirrels came down in 



R 4 fucK 



