SQUIRRELS AND SQUIRREL HUNTING. 199 



that they may search about beneath the snow sometimes 

 before they find what they are after; though, so far 

 as my own observation goes, they seem to know the 

 approximate location, and do not have to go very far 

 when they have once delved beneath the white cover- 

 ing. By what instinct of location that is done it is 

 probable that neither you nor I can ever completely 

 know, though their sense of smell undoubtedly helps 

 them. Perhaps, however, if we were squirrels, we 

 should recognize the little hummocks and hollows of a 

 few rods square as familiarly as we do the slopes and 

 ridges of our fields. The accurate and intimate knowl- 

 edge of the topography of their diminutive tract, which 

 life for some months or years among the trees has 

 given them, may be the real explanation of their ap- 

 parently mysterious intuitions. 



Squirrels evidently select certain spots as their feed- 

 ing grounds. I have seen the projecting ends of old 

 logs, or the knot of a fallen limb jutting out from 

 amongst the leaves, completely surrounded by a pile 

 of walnut hulls, cast aside by the squirrel as he gnawed 

 into the kernels. They are beautiful little animals, 

 and it is interesting to see them seated in the crotch of 

 a tree or on a fence rail, munching away at a nut for 

 dear life, and sending the pieces of hull and shell scat- 

 tering in every direction. Sometimes, if disturbed 

 no doubt, as he thinks, rudely a squirrel will not give 

 up his half-gnawed nut, but will carry it with him 

 between his teeth to a safer vantage point, and there 

 finish his meal. I can hear their light pattering among 

 the leaves, as they pick their way along the ground 

 and jump from place to place; though sometimes, if a 



