Nature-Study and the Common Forms of Animal Life 



III 



Dr. R. W. Shufeldt 

 (Reproductions of photographs from life by the author) 



Having touched briefly upon the life histories of our Mourning 

 Dove, the Spotted Salamander, and the Common Toad in No. II 

 of the present series (Oct., 191 5, p. 309), it is my intention to intro- 

 duce, in this instalment, a number of other forms, any one of which 

 it is important for the young naturalist to know something about, 

 and which, as a matter of fact, in every instance offer a whole lot 

 in the lives they lead that is full of interest to the true student of 

 Nature who aims to become as well acquainted as possible with the 

 animals of this country. 



Not long ago, I asked a friend if he had any idea as to the number 

 of squirrels we had in our United States fauna — he, at the time, 

 was entertaining several bystanders with accounts of his many 

 hunting adventures. He replied very promptly that he had killed 

 every kind of squirrel in America, and had hunted them from the 

 woods of Maine to the lower southwest corner of California. With- 

 out disputing this point, I quietly awaited a reply to my direct 

 question. Observing this in my manner, he remarked that there 

 were at least a dozen different species of squirrels in this country, 

 and he would not be surprised if there were as many as fifteen, as 

 he had heard that there were a few very like some of those he had 

 killed, though not quite the same. Having committed himself to 

 this extent, and noticing that I still awaited his list, he gave a 

 knowing wink to those to whom he had been retailing his adven- 

 tures, saying with marked assuredness: "Well, we have the red 

 squirrel, the gray squirrel, the fox squirrel, the chipmunk, the 

 flying squirrel, the black squirrel, the tufted squirrel (Abert's?), 

 and, and ■ — — ." And there he stopped, very much to the amuse- 

 ment of his group of listeners. "Well, friend," said I, "you have 

 hardly named half of the number you said existed in this country- 

 specimens of all of which you had killed. To tell you the truth, 

 if we count in all the different kinds of chipmunks, flying squirrels, 

 and, of course, the true squirrels, we have in the United States 

 alone — that is, apart from Mexico and Canada, a list of species 

 and subspecies of these animals running up to within two or three 

 of one hundred. Many of them have no vernacular or common 

 names; and the majority of them are known only to the professional 



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