JANUARY. 11 



damaged ceiling, was very dramatic. "While at work I was 

 not aware that I had broken any plaster, but I know it 

 now, and have learned never to mention a syllable about 

 sacrifices in the cause of science. Oh ! the unutterable 

 scorn when last I did so ! 



After the skies had cleared and I dared return to the 

 garret, I failed, to my intense disgust, to remember the 

 precise spot over which the squirrels were found to be 

 resting. The unfortunate hammer-marks were in bewil- 

 dering proximity, and I dared not repeat percussion as a 

 means of locating the animals. While wondering what to 

 do next, I was startled by a strange, half -musical hum- 

 ming, as of an ^Eolian harp that was muffled. There was 

 no distinct utterance, but so rapid a succession of quick 

 cries that to distinguish any one was impossible. The 

 volume of sound increased perceptibly, and then very 

 slowly died away. The moment it ceased another squirrel 

 took it up, and so what I believe to have been a half-dozen 

 squirrels sang in rapid succession. 



Listening under such disadvantageous circumstances, I 

 can not well be sure of anything I heard, but I feel con- 

 vinced that in this particular of different individuals tak- 

 ing up and repeating the song I am right. Indeed, it is 

 hard to believe that the same squirrel could have repeated 

 these prolonged sounds six times in such quick succession. 



On attempting, later, to dislodge these squirrels, I 

 found them on the alert, and no sooner was their nest 

 overturned than away they scampered in all directions. 

 The nest was a mass of paper and rags, the former torn 

 or nibbled into bits about the size of beech-leaves. Near 

 by were the empty shells of a few hickory-nuts, gathered, 

 not from the meadows, bat from the little store which, in 

 October, had been spread upon the garret floor. 



The squirrels were evidently not seriously incommoded 

 by their unceremonious eviction, as in a short time after I 



