Gray Squirrel 
rufous below, or mottled above and black beneath. Very 
variable. 
Range. Mississippi Valley, north to South Dakota. ; 
3. Southern Fox Squirrel. S. niger (Linneus). Larger than either 
of the above (25.50 inches). Colours variable, generally 
entirely black or black and buff above and reddish buff 
below. Ears and nose always white, which is never the 
case with other species. 
Range. Pine woods of Florida, west to Louisiana and north 
to Virginia, east of the mountains. 
Gray Squirrel 
Sciturus carolinensis Gmelin 
Length. 18 inches. 
Description. Similar in build to the fox squirrel, with large 
bushy tail. Colour yellowish-gray, individual hairs banded 
with rusty-yellow and black, decidedly rusty on the face, 
feet and sides. Below white. Hairs of tail rusty-yellow at 
base, black in the middle, with white tips. 
Range. Florida to southeastern Pennsylvania, Hudson Valley, In- 
diana and Missouri; replaced to the North and West by 
slightly different geographic varieties. 
The best opportunities for watching the ways of gray squir- 
rels are to be found in the outskirts of towns and _ villages, 
where they are not allowed to be shot at or otherwise molested. 
For though less intelligent than the red squirrels, they are quick 
to perceive the advantages to be had in a civilized community 
while the love of stillness and the untainted air of the forest 
does not appear to be universal among them. 
Where they are sufficiently protected they make their homes 
in shaded trees that have hollow branches, or any cavity in the 
trunk that they can enlarge for their accommodation. Here they 
live and raise their families and lay up stores for winter, above 
rattling streets and humming wires, perfectly indifferent to the 
noise and heating air that reeks of human beings crowded to- 
gether like cattle. They are comfort-loving animals, and away 
in the silent forest, a gray squirrel must be forever on the alert to 
guard his hidden stores against the thieving red squirrels and the 
wild mice of the woods, and always listening for the rustle of a 
fox’s footstep on the leaves, or the distant screaming of a hawk. 
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