2l6 AROUND AN OLD HOMESTEAD. 



about the roots of an elm. Lowell, in "An Indian 

 Summer Reverie," thus very correctly describes the little 

 ground squirrel's capering: 



" The chipmunk, on the shingly shagbark's bough, 

 Now saws, now lists with downward eye and ear, 

 Then drops his nut, and, cheeping, with a bound 

 Whisks to his winding fastness underground." 



It is commonly supposed that the chipmunk lives 

 almost wholly upon the ground, but I have seen him 

 crawl up into some pretty tall beeches, and there eat 

 the nuts, though of course as a rule his habits are of 

 the earth, earthy. It was Robert Louis Stevenson, I 

 believe, who first suggested that the gray squirrel was 

 an idealist, always living in the upper air and climb- 

 ing the trees to the heights. 



The flying squirrel is another curious little creature, 

 with its large dark eyes and singular parachute habit 

 of soaring away from one tree to another, half animal, 

 half bird. It is the bat among the squirrels. Every 

 one knows of Thoreau's experience in capturing and 

 bringing home a flying squirrel in his pocket, and then, 

 from pity, the next day taking it back to the stump 

 where he had caught it, and letting it loose again. 



Squirrels will apparently migrate in feeding time 

 from one woods to another; for, all of a sudden, in a 

 grove which has been tenantless there will some day 

 be heard the cheerful barking of the squirrels in num- 

 bers on the boughs. They swim, too, and years ago, 

 when squirrels were more plentiful, a great drove of 

 them crossed the Miami, and the boys got on the 

 opposite side of the river and gathered in with clubs 

 as many as they wanted for their respective dining 

 tables. 



