WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD 



climb upon her friend's knee, and often followed 

 her some distance down the street, barking softly if 

 the lady did not speak to her or stroke her back. 

 The same squirrel brought her babies one day 

 to show them to her host, although it cost her an 

 hour of coaxing to persuade them to follow her 

 from the brush-protected fence across the drive- 

 way to the porch. Any one who has watched 

 the patient, anxious way in which the squirrel- 

 mothers (for the fathers are away at this time 

 disporting themselves, heedless of domestic cares) 

 encourage their youngsters to venture out upon 

 the shaky limbs, and instruct them in general, 

 can well understand the relief of this little mother 

 when she had brought the kittens safely to the 

 side of their protectress. How human it was ! 

 At another time several squirrels used to come 

 to this lady's window, where she fed them, and 

 they had a habit, when climbing about her, of 

 nibbling her ears. " It is never painful or rough," 

 she writes, "but is evidently a caress." Such, no 

 doubt, were their endearments to each other. 



The popular notion that squirrels of all sorts 

 subsist wholly on nuts arises from limited, not 

 to say careless, observation. Their food is widely 

 varied in the course of a year, especially in the 



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