204 lawson's history 



good meat as on the liills. I have known some 

 killed on the salts in January that have had abun- 

 dance of bots in their throat, which keep them 

 very poor. As the summer approaches these bots 

 come out and turn into the finest butterfly imagi- 

 nable, being very large and having black, white 

 and yellow stripes. Deer skins are one of the best 

 commodities Carolina affords to ship off for Eng- 

 land, provided they be large. 



Of squirrels we have four sorts, the first is the 

 fox squirrel, so called because of his large size, 

 which is the bigness of a rabbet of two or three 

 months old. His color is commonly gray ; yet I 

 have seen several pied ones, and some reddish and 

 black ; his chiefest haunts are in the piny land 

 where the almond pine grows. There he provides 

 his winter store ; they being a nut that never fails 

 of bearing. He may be made tame, and is very 

 good meat when killed. 



The next sort of squirrel is much of the nature 

 of the English, only differing in color. Their food 

 is nuts (of all sorts the country affords) and acorns. 

 They eat well, and, like the bear, are never found 

 with young. 



The flying squirrel. — This squirrel is gray, as well 

 as the others. He is the least of the three. Hist 

 food is much the same with the small gray squir- 

 rel. He has not wings, as birds or bats have, there 

 being a fine thin-skin covered with hair, as the 

 rest of the parts are. This is from the fore feet to 

 the hinder feet, which is extended, and holds so 



