THE 



NATURE-STUDY REVIEW 



Vol. 14 October, 1918 No. 7 



The Gray Squirrel 



Anna Bristol 

 Ovid, X. Y. 



The gray squirrels range from Florida to southeastern Penn- 

 sylvania, Hudson Valley, Indiana and Missouri. Where they 

 are protected they will make their homes in the midst of any 

 bustling community in some hollow log or tree. Here they will 

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

 indifferent to the noise and crowds around them. When they 

 live in the woods they must forever be on the alert to guard their 

 hidden stores from the thieving red squirrels and ever keep listen- 

 ing for the fox's footsteps on the leaves or the distant scream of a 

 hawk. The red -shouldered hawks are dangerous enemies and 

 their hunting hours correspond exactly with the gray squirrel's 

 working hours. 



Often half a dozen or more squirrels will occupy the same 

 hole and although the old males are apt to be unpleasantly ugly 

 and tyrannical, the family seems to get along pretty well on the 

 whole. 



Gray squirrels warn each other of danger with a kind of flat, 

 rasping bark, finally prolonged into a whining snarl, distinctly 

 audible for an eighth of a mile or more. It is heard oftenest 

 directly after a rain. The red squirrel is popularly supposed 

 to drive away the gray variety and probably does to a certain 

 extent, for he is pretty sure to attack the other on sight and gener- 

 ally comes out ahead, although an actual hand-to-hand tussle 

 is of rare occurrence; the encounter generally consists of ill- 

 natured bickerings at a distance of ten inches or more, terminating 

 in the retreat of the larger of the combatants. It is said, though, 

 that the gray squirrel when fairly cornered will usually succeed 

 in putting the other to flight. 



The numbers of gray squirrels have so decreased that in the 

 last century and a half there has not occurred one of those great 



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