198 AROUND AN OLD HOMESTEAD. 



shaking of the foliage. Frequently I have been misled 

 by the sudden lurching or swaying of boughs by the 

 wind into believing that a squirrel was among them, 

 but I never like to risk a shot until I am sure of it. 



Gray squirrels do not have a pouch on each side of 

 their jaws, like the little ground squirrels; but I have 

 often seen them come down a tree with their cheeks so 

 distended and puffed out that it seemed as if they must 

 have something in them, part of a nut, perhaps, tucked 

 away on each side, making them appear curiously de- 

 formed. But their deformity will vanish when they 

 reach their holes or trysting places. Often one will 

 carry a large walnut, hull and all, in his mouth to a 

 neighboring tree, or to some fence post, or a top rail, 

 or a stump, or a prominent rock, or some other favorite 

 place, before beginning operations; and there he will 

 sit and eat. Shells can frequently be seen in spots re- 

 mote from trees, the nut having been carried thither by 

 some squirrel. I have often seen them bury nuts, as 

 I crouched among the saplings; and I could not bring 

 myself to shoot them at such times, but would watch 

 them closely, and would soon become more interested in 

 their habits than I was in my gun. Sometimes it would 

 seem as if a whole family were at it (which is, indeed, 

 very likely the case), each one making a little dive into 

 the leaves, then putting the nut in, and covering it or 

 not as the whim seized him. And yet nearly every one 

 of these hiding places is known, and, if their furry lives 

 are spared, will be found again with remarkably unerr- 

 ing precision in winter through a foot of snow. I have 

 seen holes in the snow where the squirrels have dug at 

 once to their store of nuts, but I am inclined to think 



