SQUIRREL. 



713 



s&on as they leave their parent?, though the fact has 

 not been established, and there is of course no phy- 

 siological impulse to the association at that early 

 period of their lives ; but as there remains an attach- 

 ment of the old ones, without any immediate refe- 

 rence to sexual causes, it is probable that the young 

 may possess the same. The squirrel is so neat and 

 orderly an animal, that it is one of those to which 

 there has been a strong disposition to ascribe rea- 

 soning powers ; but there is of course not the slightest 

 foundation for such an ascription. That a neat animal 

 should have more reasoning faculty than a clumsy 

 animal, rests on no better foundation than that a 

 regular crystal should have more speculation than an 

 amorphous lump. When the weather begins to get 

 warm in the spring, the squirrels shed their winter 

 coats ; and though the period of their gestation is 

 not known, this appears to be done before the pairing 

 time, so that, with them as with other mammalia, the 

 new fur is the nuptial attire ; but it does not acquire 

 its full beauty till the season is pretty far advanced. 

 It has been said that the squirrel has bred in a state 

 of captivity ; but the fact is a little doubtful, the more 

 so that, had this been the case, the time of gestation 

 would have been observed and mentioned. 



When squirels are introduced into a place favour- 

 able for them, and not molested, they increase very 

 fast. A good many years ago they were very nume- 

 rous in the park at Dalkeith-house, one of the seats 

 of the Duke of Buccleugh. At thattime there were all 

 the securities of a city of refuge in that extensive 

 park to every living creature which took up its abode 

 there. Whether the case is not the same now we 

 are ignorant ; but at that time the park was rendered 

 very pleasant, and also highly valuable as a mena- 

 gerie of British natural history, by the quiet and 

 security in which the animals lived, and their perfect 

 confidence even when one came almost close upon 

 them. The hares might be patted on the back, the 

 birds let you do every thing short of absolutely 

 touching them ; and the squirrels would sit upon riot 

 the very high branches of the tall trees by the shady 

 walks, as if they were showing themselves for 

 your special observation. If you passed on perfectly 

 silent, or even conversing with a friend, they would 

 keep their posts without any symptom of apprehen- 

 sion ; but if you gave a loud whistle, or slapped your 

 hands together, they would scamper off a bound or 

 two to a higher pitch, while a dozen more which you 

 had not previously noticed, would be put in motion, 

 all getting higher, but peeping down at you with the 

 most perfect confidence and good nature, as if every 

 one challenged you with " good-bye catch me now if 

 you can." There are indeed few of our wild mam- 

 malia so interesting as squirrels ; and as there is no 

 case of doing any serious mischief made out against 

 them, it would be highly desirable to see them in 

 every wooded park in the country. It is doubtful 

 whether they might not be turned to account in an 

 economical point of view, for although they are small 

 animals, their flesh is remarkably delicate and whole- 

 some. It is true that it might run a little counter to 

 the notions of those that have admired the lively 

 motions of a squirrel, confined and condemned to the 

 tread-mill, to think of killing so very pretty and en- 

 gaging an animal ; but the feeling is probably much 

 the same with those who are fond of a pet lamb ; 

 and yet lambs are killed by hundreds of thousands, 

 and the most refined and sentimental persons in 



the country seek after their flesh with the greatest 

 avidity. 



In the plate, SQUIRRELS there are graphically re- 

 presented several species, which afford an illustration 

 of some of the distinctions of the different sections. 

 They are well worthy of attention, and we refer to 

 to them thus generally, in order to avoid repeated 

 allusions. 



THE ALPINE SQUIRREL (S. Alpinus Pyrenaicus.} 

 This species is, as its name imports, found in the up- 

 land woods of the, Pyrenees ; and it is certainly also 

 to be met with in many other alpine districts of the 

 south of Europe ; but no mention has been made of 

 it as occurring in the north. Mere difference of 

 colour would not of course constitute a differ- 

 ence of species, in an animal so subject to va- 

 riations of colour as the common squirrel. But 

 to change the tint of a colour, especially in 

 cases where the pile of the coat is annulated, 

 and to find new colours which never break out 

 in any of the known climatal changes, are quite dif- 

 ferent matters. Besides, there are some differences in 

 form for which no climalal cause can be readily assigned; 

 the head of the alpine squirrel is smaller than that of 

 the common one, though the size of the body is nearly 

 the same ; the upper part of the alpine squirrel is dark 

 brown, mottled with small dots of yellowish white ; 

 and the under part of the body and inside of the legs 

 are pure white, as are also the borders of the lips ; 

 the outside of the legs is grey, the feet are yellow ; 

 and there is a yellow line upon each side separating 

 the brown of the back from the white of the under 

 part, and the grey of the limbs ; the hairs on the tail, 

 which are long, and divergent in the same way as 

 those on the common squirrel, are black for some 

 distance at the points, and annulated with yellow and 

 black in the rest of their length ; and those at the lip 

 of the tail are wholly black when the tail is seen in 

 profile, with the points of the hairs overlaying each 

 other ; but when seen from above it appears brown ; 

 the colours change with the season, being more 

 black on the upper part in the summer when 

 the fur is young, and more brown in the winter. 

 This is a very common case with alpine mammalia. 

 Cattle and sheep, which have the new covering of 

 the body pure black, and the old one dull reddish- 

 brown, especially at the tips of the pile, are to be 

 met with abundantly on the Scotch mountains. It 

 does not appear that there is any, or, at all events, 

 much difference inthe appearance of the alpine squirrel 

 in respect of age ; for those which were kept in the 

 menagerie at Paris, renewed exactly the same colours 

 at every change of their coats, which were changed 

 in the spring in the same manner as those of the 

 common squirrel. No difference of habit is known 

 between the one of these squirrels and the other; 

 farther than that the alpine one has been met with 

 only in the south of Europe and as a mountaineer, 

 while the other is more abundant in the middle lati- 

 tudes and the north, and is found in the low and 

 sheltered places rather than in the lofty and exposed 

 ones. It is possible that the squirrels approaching 

 to a black colour, which Pallas mentions as occurring 

 in the south of Siberia, are the same as the alpine 

 squirrel of Europe ; for the colour on the upper part 

 approaches to black during the summer. The black 

 appearance of the tail on the lateral view, and also of 

 the ear tufts and the whiskers would farther agree in 

 favour of the identity of these. Nor is there any 



