INTRODUCTION 



if taken young, can be made to enjoy his 

 domestication so completely that he makes 

 no attempt to escape, and may be trusted in 

 the open, with due precaution from cats. 

 My desire would be to so treat them in 

 the free state as to educate them to entire 

 familiarity and to breeding in that condition. 

 That this is attainable is my conviction. I 

 think the history of my two squirrels, and 

 of several others I know of, proves the 

 capacity of the species for a measure of 

 devotion and teachableness of which few 

 people have any conception, and should the 

 domestication become practical, the devel- 

 opment through heredity suggests the pos- 

 sibility of a race of companions to man of a 

 most fascinating quality. 



But this the life in a cage will never lead 

 to, and I should be sorry that my little story 

 should induce any lover of animals to con- 

 demn one of these sprightly and clever 

 beings to prison bars, even with the solace 

 of the wheel, which is the squirrel's joy, and 

 is a not uncommon fate for its kind. I ques- 

 tion if the squirrel taken in maturity can 



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