40 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



A CHIPMUNK 



Fig. 4. There are a great number of species and subspecies of Chipmunks 

 in the United States, and here we have one of the southwestern forms. 

 Their habits and food vary according to their several habitats. 



When alarmed by the approach of a hunter, or a dog, 

 or a hawk sailing overhead, the gray squirrel has a habit 

 of giving vent to a peculiar little 

 bark or whine which may be 

 heard for a considerable dis- 

 tance. Apparently he does this 

 in order to put such of his kind 

 as are within hearing on their 

 guard against the danger that 

 threatens them. When wound- 

 ed, especially if they stick in the 

 tree where shot, they will utter 

 a shrill little squeal, not alto- 

 gether unlike a big rat caught 

 in a steel trap. 



Squirrels are the prettiest and 

 most interesting animals found 

 in the whole realm of nature. 

 The person who fails to admire 

 them anywhere, and especially in 

 their native woods, and who does 

 not love them with all their pret- 

 ty ways, graceful forms, and 

 cunning tricks, must surely have 

 something radically wrong with 

 him somewhere. 



Mr. C. L. Holmes, of Water- 

 bury, Connecticut, has called at- f ars are ray - as is a P art of 



' larger and not so gentle. 



tention to the following facts in regard to the hybridiza- 

 tion of the red and gray squirrels: "In 1874 or '75, like 

 most boys of twelve or thirteen, I was very fond of 

 pets, and spent quite a little of my time trapping squir- 

 rels, both red and gray, which were very abundant 

 around my father's house. One day I found, in an old- 

 fashioned spring-door wire rat-trap, a squirrel which 

 my father and we boys declared must be a cross between 

 the red and the gray. It was about half way between 

 the two in size, and had a red tail and a gray body ; white 

 underneath, and a red stripe between the back and the 

 belly. Its head was shaped like a red squirrel's, and had 

 a little red on it. It was the most active animal for its 

 size I ever saw, and it was with considerable difficulty 

 that I finally got it from the trap into a wire bar cage, 

 which I had used for several years to hold both red 

 and gray squirrels. I put the cage in the conservatory, 

 and we were standing around admiring him, when he 

 gnawed off some solder, pushed the wire down, and 

 was out of the open window like a flash. It was a great 

 disappointment for a boy I assure you. I believe then, 

 and always shall believe that I had secured a rare prize." 



If this were in fact a hybrid squirrel, produced by a 

 crossing between a red and a gray one, it would indeed 

 be quite remarkable, as the two species are, as a rule, by 

 no means friendly, and never seem to get along well 

 together. One may see more than a dozen white or 

 albino gray squirrels in a lifetime, and several albino 

 red ones; but there is nothing remarkable in that, any 

 more than cases of albinism in other animals, as elephants, 

 mice, woodchucks, robins, woodcocks, and scores of other 

 forms men and women included. 



In these days it seems that nearly as many people 



BLACK SQUIRREL 



nt squirrels we have is the big Black Squirrel of Florida; its face and 

 the body and tail. It is a close relative of our gray squirrel, but much 



