288 Life and Immortality. 



shines with peculiar warmth, and is not seen again until the 

 beginning of spring. The young, to the number of four or 

 five, are produced in May, and there is generally a second 

 brood some time in August. A rather pugnacious animal 

 is the male Hackee, and during the combats which are 

 frequently waged when several males meet, their tails have 

 been known to snap asunder from the violence of their 

 movements, for these members, it is undoubtedly true, are 

 wonderfully brittle in their structure. 



Pretty as he . is, and graceful as are his movements, it 

 hardly pays to keep the animal in a domesticated state, for 

 his temper is very uncertain, and he is generally sullen even 

 towards his keeper. But could he be induced to take to the 

 life of a captive kindly and pleasantly, he would, by his 

 cunning little ways, prove a most agreeable companion. 



Some years ago an American writer of note had a pair of 

 these animals which made their home in the foundation wall 

 of her house. A row of wild cherry trees stood near the 

 lawn in the rear of the building, which the little fellows were 

 wont to visit many times daily, carrying off in their pouches 

 quite a number at a time of the numerous cherry pits that lay 

 scattered over the ground. 



The season being dry, one morning early the person to 

 whom reference has been made repaired to the lawn and poured 

 a pitcher of water over some plants that grew near her porch, 

 when one of these squirrels was observed to pass among 

 them on his way to the trees. He paused from his journey, 

 sat up on his haunches, took one of the wet leaves in his 

 hands, pressed the sides together for a trough for the moisture, 

 and holding it to his mouth drank from it the water in the 

 most comical fashion imaginable. He then went to another 

 and another, drinking from five or six leaves in all, while 

 she stood watching near by. A large saucer filled with 

 water was placed near the plants, which the little fellows 

 quickly discovered, and both thereafter drank and washed 

 regularly at the dish. 



