SQUIRRELS AND SQUIRREL HUNTING. 213 



by the corroborations of all who knew him. Such a 

 wild strain as that is not found nowadays. It is rare, 

 and truly native, and smacks a little of the old primeval 

 forest life and of genuine woodcraft. He was like 

 the hero in Bulwer's "A Strange Story," who would 

 even climb the trees and capture the squirrels among 

 the branches. 



One can frequently detect the presence of squirrels 

 by the scent in the woods. Rowland E. Robinson 

 speaks of that in his "New England Fields and 

 Woods," and tells how, with the other odors in spring, 

 you are made aware "by an undescribed, generally un- 

 recognized, pungency in the air that a gray squirrel 

 lives in your neighborhood." It is true, however, of 

 the other seasons as well as of spring, for there is 

 always a peculiarly woodsy and wild, animal-like smell 

 in the haunts of squirrels. One can get a hint, when 

 a faint whiff reaches him, of the many things that 

 dogs know which we have but rarely even suggested 

 to us. 



Squirrels make very beautiful and winsome pets. 

 In parks they sometimes become so used to people that 

 they lose their fear, and will take peanuts and other 

 morsels from their hands. They can be tamed, and 

 have become loving and trusting companions of men, 

 as human as dogs even, and very cleanly, and much less 

 destructive than puppies. They will, however, some- 

 times bite those whom they do not know. The late 

 W. J. Stillman once wrote a very touching account 

 of his delight in some squirrels, Billy and Hans, that 

 he had as pets, and of the remorse that he felt, after 

 his intimacy with these captives, that he had ever killed 



