SQUIRRELS 



5518 



STADIUM 



ting glasses to the eyes; sometimes both are 

 necessary. A cross-eyed baby should always be 

 treated by a skilled eye specialist as soon as 

 the trouble arises, for it is no longer necessary 

 to have a child grow up with this unsightly 

 deformity. Because of the great advance made 

 in recent years in the treatment of eye troubles, 

 squint is much less common than formerly. 

 See EYE. 



SQUIRRELS, skwur' eh, a large group of 

 rodents, or gnawing animals, which live in trees 

 or under the ground and are found in wood- 

 lands in nearly all parts of the world. Aus- 

 tralia is the only continent from which they are 

 absent. Squirrels 

 are graceful, agile 

 animals with long, 

 plumelike tails 

 and somewhat 

 slender bodies. 

 Some are but a 

 few inches in 

 length, and others 

 are as large as a 

 full-grown cat. 

 Their color 

 ranges from black 

 through reddish- 

 brown to gray. 

 The habits of the THE SQUIRREL 



typical squirrel are suggested in these lines 

 from Mary Howitt's popular poem: 



In the joy of his nature he frisks with a bound 

 To the topmost twigs, and then to the ground ; 

 Then up again, like a winged thing, 

 And from tree to tree with a vaulting spring; 

 Then he sits up aloft, and looks waggish and 



queer, 



As if he would say, "Ay, follow me here !" 

 And then he grows pettish, and stamps his foot ; 

 And then independently cracks his nut ; 

 And thus he lives the whole summer through, 

 Without a care or a thought of sorrow. 



Squirrels do take thought of the future, 

 however, for they store away nuts to last them 

 through the winter. 



Kinds of Squirrels. The red squirrel, or 

 chickaree, ranging from Northern United States 

 to the tree limit in Canada, is the most widely 

 distributed of several American species. The 

 chickaree is an active little creature not over 

 eight inches long, excluding the bushy tail. Its 

 upper parts are chestnut red, the lower parts 

 white, and there is a black stripe along each 

 side. The ears have on the tip a tuft of hairs. 

 It lives almost entirely in trees, seeking a home 

 in a hollow trunk, or making a special nest of 



leaves and twigs. Its favorite diet of nuts 

 and grain is varied by birds' eggs, young birds, 

 insects, fruits and tender twigs. Red squirrels 

 keep up . a shrill, noisy chattering. Their 

 young, three or four to a litter, are born in the 

 spring. 



There are a number of species of gray squir- 

 rels in America. One of the commonest ranges 

 from New England west to Minnesota, and is 

 hunted in the East both for its skin and its 

 flesh. This squirrel is ten inches long. Like 

 the red squirrel, it eats the young and eggs of 

 birds, but is less prone to this bad habit than 

 its smaller brother. One of its means of escap- 

 ing the notice of its own enemies, particularly 

 the hawk, is to flatten out on the side of a 

 horizontal branch; in this position its gray- 

 coated body is even more inconspicuous than 

 usual. Gray squirrels have a habit of calling 

 to one another by "barking," or uttering a 

 series of sounds that end in a sort of snarl. 

 They are often seen in city parks, where they 

 become so tajne that they sometimes climb on 

 the shoulders of passers-by. There are other 

 species of gray squirrels in the southwestern 

 part of the United States and in California. 



The fox squirrels are larger and handsomer 

 than any of the species mentioned. They are 

 found in the Middle states and in the South. 

 Some are jet black, others reddish-gray, and 

 there are others with colors ranging between 

 these shades. In Europe there is a common 

 squirrel which ranges all over the continent. It 

 is colored like the chickaree but is somewhat 

 larger. The squirrels of the tropics are noted 

 for their brilliant coloring, and there is an 

 Oriental species which changes its gray coat for 

 one of bright orange-yellow in the breeding 

 season. This is the only known mammal which 

 has a variation of color corresponding to the 

 changes in the plumage of birds. 



There are two other interesting groups of 

 squirrels, those that live in burrows in the 

 ground, and those that fly. The most impor- 

 tant ground squirrel, the chipmunk, is described 

 in these volumes under that title. M.S. 



Consult Seton's Life Histories of Northern Ani- 

 mals ; Hornaday's The American Natural History. 



Related Subjects. The reader is referred to 

 the following articles in these volumes : 

 Chipmunk Fur and Fur Trade 



Flying Squirrel Rodents 



SQUIRRELTAIL GRASS, a name frequently 

 applied to WILD BARLEY (which see). 



STA'DIUM, originally the foot-race course 

 in Olympia, Athens and other places in Greece 



