MAMMALS. 



603 



by this little creature ; and if you dig down and follow it a little way you 

 will find a warm nest of grass and leaves, and perhaps you may find his 

 store of beechnuts and other provisions, laid up for a time of scarcity. 

 There, as you dig, comes the chipmunk home. He sees you and stops. 

 His cheeks are filled with seeds, which he was about to add to the stock 

 you have rifled. You step towards him, and down he goes on the other 

 side of the wall, to disappear in the grass. 



The true squirrels are larger and more arboreal in their habits, and in 

 these we find that full development of the tail which gives these animals 

 their scientific name. Sciurus was the name the poetic Greeks gave to 

 this animal ; it means shade-tail, and our word squirrel is plainly a deriva- 



Fig. 487. — Flying-squirrel (Sciuropterus volucella). 



tive of it. Isn't the name apt ? See the squirrel as it perches on the 

 limb of a tree, holding a nut in its paws with almost human readiness and 

 facility, with his bushy tail arched up over his back, the tip gracefully 

 curved away from the body, and the full force of the name will be at once 

 apparent. It now appears that there are six species of true squirrels in 

 the United States, but in the older work of Audubon and Bachman twenty- 

 four are enumerated. This will show how variable these animals are in 

 their appearance. Of their habits there is little to be said that is not 

 known to all. 



Of all the squirrel tribe there is none so pretty or so interesting as the 

 little flying-squirrel, or assapan. It was one of the earliest observed 



