ZOOLOGY. 383 



inches. Dr. Newberry says : " The Californian gray squirrel 

 is eminently a tree-squirrel, scarcely descending to the ground 

 but for food and water, and it subsists almost exclusively on 

 the seeds of the largest and loftiest pine known, (Pinus lam- 

 bertiana) the ' sugar-pine ' of the Western coast. The cones of 

 this magnificent tree are from twelve to sixteen inches in 

 length, and contain each one hundred or more seeds of the 

 size and shape of the small white bean of commerce. These 

 cones would be unmanageable by the squirrel in the tree, 

 and he has the habit, so common in the family, of dropping 

 them to the ground, where he can dissect them at leisure. This 

 he usually does early in the morning, climbing to the extremi- 

 ties of the topmost branches, where the cones hang, and cut- 

 ting off a sufficient number to supply his wants for the day. 

 He then descends, and, commencing at the base of the cone, 

 tears off the scales in rapid succession, and skilfully possesses 

 himself of the seeds which they conceal. He is compelled, 

 however, to supply other wants than his own, for the smaller 

 pine-squirrel (Sciwrus douglasii) and the ground-squirrel 

 ( Tamias townsendii) appropriate a large share of his booty. 

 "When oak-trees are near, and acorns are ripe, he has recourse 

 to them for subsistence ; as often as opportunity offers, robbing 

 the woodpeckers of their stores, in which also he has the active 

 cooperation of his more diminutive congeners. From the fact 

 that he feeds upon the ground, it has been supposed that he was 

 less active, and less fitted for climbing, than most tree-squirrels. 

 This, I think, is not true. He is exceedingly quick and grace- 

 ful in his movements ; and if less frequently seen to spring 

 from tree to tree than the black and gray squirrels of eastern 

 States, it is because he inhabits coniferous trees, which are re- 

 markable for the insignificance of their branches compared 

 with the size of the trunk, the limbs never stretching out and 

 interlocking, as those of the oak and maple and other trees, in 

 which our common species live." 

 The Californian pine-squirrel (Sciurus douglasii) inhabits the 



