SQUIRRELS AND SQUIRREL HUNTING. 223 



Shelley says, In "Alastor," that his solitary poet 

 dwelt in the wild so long that the doves and squirrels 

 would partake of his food and the antelope stay her 

 steps in admiration. Would it be possible nowadays 

 for many of us so to cultivate the friendships of the 

 forest? Must we always think of it as merely a poetic 

 fancy? It is said of William Hamilton Gibson that 

 he had such an influence over the wild inhabitants of 

 the woods, was so en rapport with their life, and had 

 so won their confidence and trust, that, if he would but 

 hollow his hands and hold them up with a cooing 

 whistle toward a branch, the birds would nestle in their 

 cup, and the squirrels would come down the great tree 

 trunks and let him stroke them as they gazed wonder- 

 ingly at him. And how beautifully he has written 

 of the secrets of the squirrels and all the life of the 

 woods, and with what perfect art in illustration has 

 he sympathetically drawn their homes and faces. 



In our American poetry, besides my preliminary 

 quotation from Whittier, I recall a few allusions to 

 the squirrel in some of Bryant's poems. He says, in 

 his apostrophe "Among the Trees," that the kings of 

 the earth are not arrayed as are the forest-trees in 

 autumn, 



" While, swaying on the sudden breeze, ye fling 

 Your nuts to earth, and the brisk squirrel comes 

 To gather them, and barks with childish glee, 

 And scampers with them to his hollow oak." 



He says that "the squirrel in the forest seeks his hollow 

 tree" in time of storm; that, while the birds are sing- 

 ing in the tree-tops, 



' ' Below 



The squirrel, with raised paws and form erect, 

 Chirps merrily." 

 15 



