142 ANIMALS OF THE 



longer tail. The tail, indeed, is alone sufficient 

 to distinguish it from all others, as it is extreme- 

 ly long, beautiful, and bushy, spreading like a 

 fan, and which, when thrown up behind, covers 

 the whole body. This serves the little animal 

 for a double purpose ; when erected, it serves, 

 like an umbrella, as a secure protection from the 

 injuries of the heat and cold ; and when extend- 

 ed, it is very instrumental yi promoting those 

 vast leaps that the squirrel takes from tree to 

 tree ; nay, some assert that it answers still a third 

 purpose, and when the squirrel takes to the water, 

 which it sometimes does upon a piece of bark, 

 that its tail serves it instead of a sail. * 



There are few wild animals in which there are 

 so many varieties as in the squirrel. t The com- 

 mon squirrel is of the size of a small rabbit, and 

 is rather of a more reddish-brown. The belly 

 and breast are white; and the ears beautifully 

 ornamented with long tufts of hair, of a deeper 

 colour than that on the body. The eyes are 

 large, black, and lively ; the legs are short and 

 muscular, like those of the rabbit ; but the toes 

 longer, and the claws sharper, so as to fit it for 

 climbing. When it eats, or dresses itself, it sits 

 erect, like the hare or rabbit, making use of its 

 fore-legs as hands ; and chiefly resides in trees. 

 The grey Virginian squirrel, which M. BufTon 

 calls the Petit Gm, is larger than a rabbit, and 

 of a greyish colour. Its body and limbs are 



* Klein. Linnaeus. 



[f This class of quadrupeds have two fore-teeth in each jaw, the superior 

 ones shaped like wedges, and the inferior ones compressed.] 



