The Squirrel 95 



THE SQUIRREL. (Sciurus vulgaris.) 



ELEGANCE of shape, spiritedness, and agility to leap from 

 bough to bough in the forest, are the principal character- 

 istics of this pretty animal. The Squirrel is of a deep 

 reddish brown colour, his breast and belly white. He 

 is lively, sagacious, docile, and nimble : he lives upon 

 nuts, and has been seen so tame as to dive into the 

 pocket of his mistress, and search after an almond or a 

 lump of sugar. In the woods he leaps from tree to tree 

 with surprising agility, living a most frolicsome life, 

 surrounded with abundance, and having but few ene- 

 mies. His time, however, is not entirely devoted to 

 idle enjoyment, for in the luxuriant season of autumn 

 he gathers provisions for the approaching winter, as if 

 conscious that the forest would then be stripped of its 

 fruits and foliage. His tail serves him as a parasol to 

 defend him from the rays of the sun, as a parachute to 

 secure him from dangerous falls when leaping from tree 

 to tree, and, some say, as a sail in crossing the water, 

 which he sometimes does in Lapland on a bit of ice or 

 bark inverted in the manner of a boat. 



The American Flying Squirrel (Pteromys volucella) 

 has a large membrane proceeding from the fore feet to 

 the hind legs, which answers the same purpose as the 

 Squirrel's tail, and enables him to give surprising leaps 

 that almost resemble flying. In the act of leaping, the 

 loose skin is stretched out by the feet, whereby the sur- 

 face of the body is augmented, its fall is retarded, and it 



