148 



The Living Animals of the World 



induced wild squirrels to pay 

 daily visits to her bedroom for 

 food ; they used to climb up 

 the ivy and jump in at the 

 open window. The great 

 enemies of squirrels near houses 

 are the cats, which kill all the 

 young ones when they first 

 come down from the trees. 

 In a garden in Berkshire a 

 pair of squirrels had a family 

 every summer for five years, 

 but none ever survived the cats' 

 persistent attacks. These 

 squirrels were most amusing 

 and improvident. They used 

 to hide horse-chestnuts, small 

 potatoes, kernels of stone fruit, 

 bulbs of crocuses, and other 

 treasures in all kinds of places, 

 and then forget them. After 

 deep snows they might be seen 

 scampering about looking into 

 every hole and crevice to see 

 whether that happened to be the place where they had hidden something useful. Much of the 

 store was buried among the roots of trees and bushes, and quite hidden when the snow fell. 



Photo ly IP. P. Dando] [Regent's Park. 



DORSAL SQUIRREL FROM CENTRAL AMERICA. 



A most beautiful species. The main colour is red, but the back is French grey, and the tail 

 French grey and red mingled. 



THE GREY SQUIRREL. 



In Northern Europe, and across Northern Asia and America, a large grey squirrel is found. 

 From its fur the " squirrel-cloaks " are made. These squirrels live mainly on the seeds of 

 pines in winter, and on wild fruits, shoots, and berries in summer. It has been noticed that 

 they will entirely forsake some great area of forest for a year or two, and as suddenly return 

 to it. The marten and the sable are the great enemies of the grey squirrel, but the eagle-owl 

 and goshawk also kill numbers of them. In many countries the flesh of the squirrel is eaten. 



The grey-and-black squirrel of the 

 United States was thus described some 

 sixty years ago : " It rises with the 

 sun, and continues industriously en- 

 gaged in the search for food for four 

 or five hours every morning. During 

 the warm weather of spring it pre- 



!4L. w^Htt BP"^%bif^P pares its nest on the branch of a 



tree, constructing it first of dried 

 sticks, which it breaks off, or, if these 

 are not at hand, of green twigs as 

 thick as a finger, which it gnaws off 

 from the boughs. These it lays in the 

 fork of a tree, so as to make a frame- 



to by A. s. Rudiand <. sons. work. It lines this framework with 



ASIATIC CHIPMUNKS. leaves, and over these again it spreads 



Small ground-aquirrels which store food for the winter. mOSS. In making the n6St, the pair 



