THE SQUIRREL 213 



in various selected spots, where it almost invariably finds 

 them when an occasional fine winter's day wakes the 

 animal up from its long sleep. When it has dined it again 

 retires to resume its slumbers. In the warmer regions the 

 Squirrels do not sink into a state of torpidity at any time 

 of the year. 



The Squirrel makes a charming, frolicsome pet, and 

 there are few persons who cannot take pleasure in its 

 antics. In some American public parks the animals are 

 given their freedom, and their merry life in the trees is 

 an additional charm to the public pleasure resorts. It has 

 been proposed to adopt the same plan in London. There 

 is no doubt that the Squirrels would permanently make 

 their homes within the confines of the parks, and it is 

 equally certain that the London cat would assume it was 

 its special prerogative to add squirrel-hunting to its many 

 misdoings. The hordes of town-bred cats have developed 

 quite wonderful arboreal powers, which have already 

 resulted in the disappearance from the parks and gardens of 

 many charming little songsters, who can no longer nest 

 there in safety. The mother Squirrel would be faced with 

 the same difficulty, for if the old ones escaped the feline 

 prowler, the young Rodents would fall victims whenever 

 they descended to the ground. 



The best-known Squirrels of the United States and 

 Canada are the Black or Fox Squirrel (Sciurus niger) } nearly 

 three feet in length, and the smaller Grey Squirrel (Sciurus 

 carolinensis). Some of these animals have been set free 

 in the Zoological Gardens, where they are great favourites 

 with visitors (Plate XIX.). The Grey Squirrel was at 

 one time a pest in the New England States, vast numbers 

 of the animals migrating from one region to another, 

 devastating large tracts of cultivated land in the process. 

 Under an old Pennsylvanian law threepence was paid 

 by the State for each head of this animal ; and in a 

 single year in the middle of the eighteenth century the 

 Government paid no less than .8,000 on this account. 

 This meant the death of nearly two millions of the little 

 animal, whose ornamental fur, which is quite different from 

 the grey coat of the Siberian variety of the Common 



