Gray Squirrel 



rufous below, or mottled above and black beneath. Very 



variable. 



Range. Mississippi Valley, north to South Dakota. 

 3. Southern Fox Squirrel. S. niger (Linnaeus). Larger than either 



of the above (25.50 inches). Colours variable, generally 



entirely black or black and buff above and reddish buff 



below. Ears and nose always white, which is never the 



case with other species. 

 Range. Pine woods of Florida, west to Louisiana and north 



to Virginia, east of the mountains. 



Gray Squirrel 



Sciurus carolinensis Gmelin 



Length. 18 inches. 



Description. Similar in build to the fox squirrel, with large bushy tail. 

 Colour yellowish-gray, individual hairs banded with rusty-yellow 

 and black, decidedly rusty on the face, feet and sides. Below white. 

 Hairs of tail rusty-yellow at base, black in the middle, with white 

 tips. (Illustration facing p. 173.) 



Range. Florida to southeastern Pennsylvania, Hudson Valley, In- 

 diana and Missouri; replaced to the North and West by 

 slightly different geographic varieties. 



The best opportunities for watching the ways of gray squir- 

 rels are to be found in the outskirts of towns and villages, 

 where they are not allowed to be shot at or otherwise molested. 

 For though less intelligent than the red squirrels, they are quick 

 to perceive the advantages to be had in a civilized community 

 while the love of stillness and the untainted air of the forest 

 does not appear to be universal among them. 



Where they are sufficiently protected they make their homes 

 in shaded trees that have hollow branches, or any cavity in the 

 trunk that they can enlarge for their accommodation. Here they 

 live and raise their families and lay up stores for winter, above 

 rattling streets and humming wires, perfectly indifferent to the 

 noise and heating air that reeks of human beings crowded to- 

 gether like cattle. They are comfort-loving animals, and away 

 in the silent forest, a gray squirrel must be forever on the alert to 

 guard his hidden stores against the thieving red squirrels and the 

 wild mice of the woods, and always listening for the rustle of a 

 fox's footstep on the leaves, or the distant screaming of a hawk. 



170 



