QUADRUPEDS. 47 



The comir.jn red squirrel is, perhaps, more remarkable for its 

 neatness and beauty than any of its kindred species, which, in 

 habits and manners, it closely resembles. It is between seven and 

 eight inches long, having a tail five inches in length. Its whiskers 

 are very long and black ; the superior parts of the body are of a 

 reddish brown color, varying in intensity, and shaded with black. 

 On the inferior parts the general color is a tarnished or yellowish 

 white ; the under part of the head and front of the fore limbs are 

 reddish brown, like the back ; the insides of the thighs are 

 colored like the belly ; on each flank there is a distinctly marked 

 black line, separating the colors of the back and belly. The tail is 

 of a reddish brown color, and is very beautiful. 



The red squirrel is a great pest in orchards. He will frequently 

 destroy a hundred pears in a day to get the seeds, which alone 

 he eats. 



The Ground Squirrel (commonfy called the Chipmunk, 

 Ilacky or Hackee, Ground, or Striped Squirrel). Few persons 

 have traveled without becoming acquainted with this pretty ani- 

 mal, which, though very different in its general appearance from 

 its kindred tenanting the lofty forest-trees, still approaches to them 

 so closely in personal beauty and activity, as always to command 

 the attention of the most incidental observer. 



This squirrel is most generally seen scudding along the lower 

 rails of the common zig-zag or " Virginia" fences, which afford 

 him at once a pleasant and secure path, as in a few turns he finds 

 a safe hiding-place behind the projecting angles, or enters his bur- 

 row undiscovered. When no fence is near, or his retreat is cut off, 

 after having been out in search of food, he becomes exceedingly 

 alarmed, and runs up the nearest tree, uttering a veiy shrill cry or 

 whistle, indicative of his distress, and it is in this situation that he 

 is most frequently made captive by his persecuting enemies, tho 

 mischievous school-boys. 



The ground squirrel makes his burrow generally near the roots 

 of trees, along the course of fences and old walls, or in banks ad- 

 jacent to forests, whence he obtains his principal supplies of food. 

 The burrows frequently extend to very considerable distances, 

 having several galleries or lateral excavations, in which provisions 

 are stored for winter use. The burrow has always two openings, 

 which are usually far distant from each other ; it very rarely hap- 

 pens that the animal is dug out, unless it be accidentally during 

 the winter season. 



