302 THE MOUNTAIN. 



abounding in grease, it is said by its lovers to possess a 

 flavor strongly resembling a mixture of pig and rat, and is 

 consequently one of the rarest combinations of sapors in- 

 dulged in by omnivorous man. It is the only marsupial on 

 the continent, and has a range from Southern United States 

 to Hudson's River. 



SQUIRREL. 



ORDER RODENTIA, (Family Sciurida3.) 



SCIURTJS, species Cinereus, (Linn.) This is the large 

 squirrel, called fox squirrel. It is not abundant, but some- 

 times taken on the mountain. 



SCIURUS, (Gmelin.) Species Carolinensis, (Grodman.) 

 This is the common gray and black squirrel. Possess- 

 ing a geographic range of the whole United States to the 

 Missouri River, it is of course on the mountain. This 

 squirrel is very abundant during seasons when the mast of 

 the mountain abounds. This abundance is sometimes in- 

 creased to an enormous extent by immigration of large 

 swarms from the districts where the supply of food has 

 failed. It is a beautiful and interesting species. 



SCIURUS Hudsonius, (Pallas,) is the Chickaree Pine, or red 

 squirrel of the woods. It has a range from Labrador (lat. 65) 

 to Mississippi. This lively and noisy little squirrel has also 

 quite a range of instincts and affinities. He lives in barns, 

 deserted houses, and hollow trees, and is also found in the 

 deepest and darkest forests, and in the most lonely and un- 

 frequented places. He is familiar and almost impertinent, 

 allowing a near approach, and assuming, with quick and 

 jerking movements of body, all styles of fantastic atti- 

 tudes sometimes sitting upright, with his tail over his 

 back, in the crook of a pine limb, or hanging, head down- 

 ward, by his hind claws ; again twirling spirally around the 

 tree, or plunging fearlessly among its topmost boughs. 



