Red Squirrel 



parts grayish-white. In summer no distinct rufous area on 

 the back, and lower parts pure white with a black stripe 

 on each side, separating the colours of the upper and lower 

 parts. (Illustrations facing pp. 180, 181, and 184.) 

 Range. Southern Maine, Nova Scotia and Quebec, and in the 

 mountains southward, replaced in the lower grounds and in 

 Labrador by slightly different varieties. 



The red squirrel is possessed of more petty vices and fewer 

 virtues than any other beast that roams the woods. He is quarrel- 

 some, noisy and mischievous and forever prying into the affairs 

 of others. In the winter he makes a regular business of rob- 

 bing his neighbours of the stores of provisions they have gathered, 

 though he always has more than his share hidden away at home 

 and most zealously guarded; and in summer he robs birds' nests 

 high and low. 



Yet one cannot help liking him, for a keen sense of humour 

 and never failing good spirits tip the balance against all sorts of 

 evil deeds. Even in northern New England the cold is never 

 fierce enough to curb his jollity any more than the blistering 

 heat of July. 



You are sure to meet him when driving over country roads 

 at any time of the year, for, in most of the Northern States, red 

 squirrels are as common as robins. 



Few people realize what thoroughly practical, thrifty and in- 

 genious little animals they really are; for, unlike most thieves, they are 

 not in anyway shiftless or lazy, but are steady hard- workers the year 

 round. There is no idle season for them. 



Other squirrels live a careless, gipsy sort of life through the warm 

 weather, only commencing the labour of harvesting when the nuts 

 ripen. 



But as early as July, while the young squirrels have still to be 

 watched over and looked after, the industrious red squirrels begin cut- 

 ting off the green cones of the white pine and work early and late 

 burying them, half a dozen in a place, under the pine needles, to be 

 dug up in the winter and early spring and opened for the seeds they 

 contain. 



No amount of snow seems to bother them much when it comes 

 to locating their buried stores. 



By the time the business of gathering pine cones is over for the 

 season the nuts and acorns are beginning to ripen, and there are fall 



'73 



