Red Squirrel 
parts grayish-white. In summer no distinct rufous area on 
the back, and lower parts pure white with a black stripe 
on each side, separating the colours of the upper and lower 
parts. 
Range. Southern Maine, Nova Scotia and Quebec, and in the 
mountains southward, replaced in the lower grounds and in 
Labrador by slightly different varieties. 
The red squirrel is possessed of more petty vices and fewer 
virtues than any other beast that roams the woods. He is quarrel- 
some, noisy and mischievous and forever prying into the affairs 
of others. In the winter he makes a regular business of rob- 
bing his neighbours of the stores of provisions they have gathered, 
though he always has more than his share hidden away at home 
and most zealously guarded; and in summer he robs birds’ nests 
high and low. 
Yet one cannot help liking him, for a keen sense of humour 
and never failing good spirits tip the balance against all sorts of 
evil deeds. Even in northern New England the cold is never 
fierce enough to curb his jollity any more than the blistering 
heat of July. 
You are sure to meet him when driving over country roads 
at any time of the year, for, in most of the Northern States, red 
squirrels are as common as robins. 
Few people realize what thoroughly practical, thrifty and in- 
genious little animals they really are; for, unlike most thieves, they are 
not in anyway shiftless or lazy, but are steady hard-workers the year 
round. There is no idle season for them. 
Other squirrels live a careless, gipsy sort of life through the warm 
weather, only commencing the labour of harvesting when the nuts 
ripen. 
But as early as July, while the young squirrels have still to be 
watched over and looked after, the industrious red squirrels begin cut- 
ting off the green cones of the white pine and work early and late 
burying them, half a dozen in a place, under the pine needles, to be 
dug up in the winter and early spring and opened for the seeds they 
contain. 
No amount of snow seems to bother them much when it comes 
to locating their buried stores. 
By the time the business of gathering pine cones is over for the 
season the nuts and acorns are beginning to ripen, and there are fall 
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