Mammal Study 235 



my own home, and have noted that if a squirrel leaves them for ex- 

 ploring, he goes warily; while, when following them, he is quite reckless 

 in his haste. When making a jump from tree to tree, he flattens himself 

 as widely as possible and his tail is held somewhat curved, but on a 

 level with the body, as if its wide brush helped to buoy him up 

 and perhaps to steer him also. 



During the winter the chickaree is quite dingy in color and is an 

 inconspicuous object, especially when he "humps himself up" so 

 that he resembles a knot on a limb ; but with the coming of spring, 

 he dons a brighter coat of tawny-red and along his sides, where 

 the red meets the grayish white of the under side, there is a 

 dark line which is very ornamental; and now his tail is a shower 

 of ruddiness. As the season advances, the colors seem to fade; 

 they are probably a part of his wooing costume. When dashing up a tree 

 trunk, his color is never very striking but looks like the glimmer of sun- 

 light; this has probably saved many of his kind from the gunner, whose 

 eyes being at the front of his head, cannot compare in efficiency with 

 those of the squirrel, which being large and full and alert, are placed at 

 the sides of the head so as to see equally well in all directions. 



The squirrel's legs are short because he is essentially a climber rather 

 than a runner; the hips are very strong which insures his power as a 

 jumper and his leaps are truly remarkable. A squirrel uses his front 

 paws for hands in a most human way; with them he washes his face and 

 holds his food up to his mouth while eating, and it is interesting to note 

 the skill of his claws when used as fingers. The track he makes in the 

 snow is quite characteristic. The tracks are paired and those of the large 

 five-toed hind feet are always in front. 



Squirrel tracks. 



The squirrel has two pairs of gnawing teeth which are very long and 

 strong, as in all rodents, and he needs to keep busy gnawing hard things 

 with them, or they will grow so long that he cannot use them at all and 

 will starve to death. He is very clever about opening nuts so as to get all 

 the meats. He often opens a hickory nut with two holes which tap the 

 places of the nut meats squarely; with walnuts or butternuts, which have 

 much harder shells, he makes four small holes, one opposite each quarter 

 of the kernel. He has no cheek-pouches like a chipmunk but he can carry 

 corn and other grain. He often fills his mouth so full that his cheeks 

 bulge out like those of a boy eating pop-corn; but anything as large as a 

 nut he carries in his teeth. His food is far more varied than many sup- 

 pose and he will eat almost an^rthing eatable; he is a little pirate and 

 enjoys stealing from others with keenest zest. In spring, he eats leaf 

 buds and hunts our orchards for apple seeds. In winter, he feeds on nuts 

 and cones; it is marvelous how he will take a cone apart, tearing off the 

 scales and leaving them in a heap while searching for seeds; he is espec- 

 ially fond of the seeds of Norway spruce and hemlock. Of course, he is 

 fond of nuts of all kinds and will cut the chestnut burs from the tree 

 before they are ripe, so that he may get ahead of the other harvesters. 

 He stores his food for winter in all sorts of odd places and often forgets 



