EACH AFTER ITS KIND 



Soon after the chipmunk there appears a red 

 squirrel going down the wall — half-brother to the 

 chipmunk but keyed to a much higher degree of 

 intensity. He moves in spasms and sallies and is 

 frisky and impish, where the chipmunk is sedate 

 and timid. His arboreal life requires different qual- 

 ities and powers; he rushes through the tree-tops 

 like a rocket; he travels on bridges of air ; he is nearly 

 as much at home amid the branches as are the birds, 

 much more so than is the flying squirrel, which has 

 but one trick, while the red squirrel has a dozen. 

 That facile tail, now a cockade, now a shield, now an 

 air-buoy; that mocking dance, those derisive snick- 

 ers and explosions; those electric spurts and dashes 

 — what a character he is — the very Puck of the 

 woods ! 



Yesterday a gray squirrel came down the wall 

 from the mountain — a long, softly undulating line 

 of silver-gray; unhurried, alert, but not nervous, 

 pausing now and then, but striking no attitudes; 

 silent as a shadow and graceful as a wave — the 

 very spirit of the tall, lichen-covered birches and 

 beeches of the mountain-side. When food is scarce 

 in the woods he comes to the orchards and fields for 

 insects and wild fruit, and any chance bit of food 

 he can pick up. What a contrast he makes to the 

 pampered town squirrel, gross in form and heavy 

 in movement ! The town squirrel is the real rustic, 

 while the denizen of the woods has the grace and 



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