Red Squirrel 
the upper side of a branch and drink the sap that fills them, 
coming back a dozen times a day for the sweet refreshment. 
They are hearty meat-eaters at all times, though beyond 
robbing birds’ nests they are anything but successful hunters. 
But they follow the more successful hunters to take advantage of 
their luck, and annoy the trapper by stealing the bait from his 
traps. Most red squirrels are not satisfied with a single habita- 
tion. They must have an underground hole beneath the roots 
of a tree at all events, and in addition either a nest among the 
branches, or in a hollow tree, or both. 
When they can get possession of the deserted nest of a 
hawk or crow, they roof it over with moss and strips of bark 
and pine needles and have a snug home for all weathers. 
In most pine groves there are more such nests occupied by 
red squirrels than by the original owners. 
At other times they arrange a platform of twigs in a crotch 
or against the trunk, and supported by small branches, build 
their nest on this, using wet moss and cedar bark and _ thatch- 
ing it over with pine needles. They also make nests of soft 
grass in hollow logs and stumps or beneath a pile of wood. 
Red squirrels are most erratic when it comes to laying up stores 
for winter, sometimes they will pack away half a bushel of nuts 
or apples in a hollow tree, but often it is two or three in one 
place and a dozen in another. 
Holes beneath stumps and flat stones are favourite hiding 
places of theirs. At other times they make little piles of nuts 
on the ground and cover them up with leaves, probably intend- 
ing to transfer them to safer hiding when the rush of harvest- 
ing is ovef. They will also wedge nuts, one in a place, in the 
forks of small branches, and in cracks in the bark. 
Varieties of the Red Squirrel 
1. Northern Red Squirrel. Sciurus hudsonicus gymnicus Bangs. 
Description and range as above. 
2. Southern Red Squirrel. S. hudsonicus loqguax Bangs. Larger 
and brighter red in winter with under parts always pure 
white. 
Range. Southern Maine, Michigan and Minnesota to Virginia 
and Indiana, except in the Alleghanies. 
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