SQUIRRELS, GOOD AND BAD 135 



public pets in a thousand villages and urban 

 parks. In some places, indeed, they are so 

 numerous and bold as to injure gardens, and 

 to work ruin in roofs and cornices by digging 

 through them to make their nests inside. As 

 pets in captivity they, like the reds, are not 

 very desirable, since they grow cross with age, 

 and if more than one is kept in a cage the 

 strongest will probably kill or injure the others. 

 If allowed the freedom of a room they will work 

 havoc, and prove practically untamable. 



It is as easy and much better, however, to 

 domiciliate them in the trees about the house, 

 by placing high among the branches cabins 

 (short sections of hollow logs are best), and 

 protecting and feeding their tenants. They 

 will come to a window-sill where you place 

 regularly cracked nuts, grains of corn or bits 

 of cracker, and you will enjoy their society 

 much more in their free shy activity than if they 

 were immured in a small wire jail. A good 

 plan, if you like their visits to your window- 

 sill, is to provide them with a pole-bridge from 

 the nearest tree, as they are shy of going upon 

 the ground where dogs and cats may be. 



