INTELLIGENCE OF SQUIRRELS 211 



squirrel to a cycle of milder seasons, but it would 

 be difficult to say whether this is the correct explana- 

 tion. Squirrels seem to be able to adapt themselves 

 to all kinds of climates and weathers. The facts 

 already mentioned of the hibernation of the squirrel 

 in this country show how easily its habits might 

 graduate, either towards activity all the winter 

 through in a milder climate, or towards absolute 

 torpor and insensibility throughout the whole 

 season, as happens in North America and in other 

 colder countries. It is probably this adaptability 

 of habit, coupled with the fact that no kind of food, 

 animal or vegetable, comes entirely amiss to it, 

 that makes the squirrel so cosmopolitan. It is 

 one of the most widely distributed of families. 

 While the squirrel is nearly related to the rat and 

 the rabbit, many of the burrowing forms closely 

 imitating the habits of these creatures, it quite rises 

 to the suggestion of the monkey in its arboreal 

 habits and general intelligence. The flying squirrels 

 have even attempted the solution of some of the 

 problems of aerial navigation. Squirrels of all kinds 

 breed rapidly. The month of March in this country 

 marks the resumption of a life of full activity after 

 the winter. They pair soon after they wake up and 

 there are sometimes two broods, each of three or 

 four or more, in the season. If taken young squirrels 

 make delightful pets, their gambols and intelligent 

 antics being a constant source of pleasure. They 

 seem to be almost without natural fear of persons, 

 readily treating them quite as companions and 

 evidently regarding them as no more than wiser 

 squirrels of a larger kind. 



