EACH AFTER ITS KIND 



Soon after the chipmunk there appears a red 

 squirrel going down the wall half-brother to the 

 chipmunk but keyed to a much higher degree of 

 intensity. He moves in spasms and sallies and is 

 frisky and impish, where the chipmunk is sedate 

 and timid. His arboreal life requires different qual- 

 ities and powers; he rushes through the tree-tops 

 like a rocket ; he travels on bridges of air ; he is nearly 

 as much at home amid the branches as are the birds, 

 much more so than is the flying squirrel, which has 

 but one trick, while the red squirrel has a dozen. 

 That facile tail, now a cockade, now a shield, now an 

 air-buoy; that mocking dance, those derisive snick- 

 ers and explosions ; those electric spurts and dashes 

 what a character he is the very Puck of the 

 woods ! 



Yesterday a gray squirrel came down the wall 

 from the mountain a long, softly undulating line 

 of silver-gray; unhurried, alert, but not nervous, 

 pausing now and then, but striking no attitudes; 

 silent as a shadow and graceful as a wave the 

 very spirit of the tall, lichen-covered birches and 

 beeches of the mountain-side. When food is scarce 

 in the woods he comes to the orchards and fields for 

 insects and wild fruit, and any chance bit of food 

 he can pick up. What a contrast he makes to the 

 pampered town squirrel, gross in form and heavy 

 in movement! The town squirrel is the real rustic, 

 while the denizen of the woods has the grace and 

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