MICHIGAN 255 



noticed, after one or two sucli migrations, which almost 

 denuded an extensive district of squirrels, that the follow- 

 ing year was a bad one for nuts and beech mast. It 

 looks, therefore, as if the little animals, by some remark- 

 able instinct or train of reasoning, were forewarned that 

 a season of scarcity was approaching. I do not say that 

 squirrels are the only animals in the American forests 

 which make these remarkable migrations. Other mam- 

 mals and many species of birds do so ; but the habit is 

 more marked in the squirrel than in any other animal 

 found here. It is the vast number in these migrations 

 that is so remarkable ; so that it looks as if the horde 

 had deliberately started on a journey, like a body of 

 emigrants, to find a new country, the old being no longer 

 able to supply their wants. 



The squirrels hibernate, but I do not consider their 

 retirement for the winter a true hibernation ; for they 

 lay up a store of food for use during the winter, which 

 such animals as bears, which fall into a profound sleep, 

 resemblmg death, during the season of winter, do not. 

 This food is taken to their store-holes in their cheek- 

 pouches, which are capable of holding an acorn. Many 

 of those which I shot had acorns in their pouches, but 

 more often it was beech mast, nuts, and, where there 

 were barns in the neighbourhood, grain of several sorts ; 

 for these squirrels visit the outhouses of farms, and 

 have been known to nearly empty corn-bins of their 

 contents. 



The grey squirrel, >S', carolinensis, is said in books to 

 be distinguished by its superior size, and the absence of 

 tufts of hair on the ears ; but none of the American 

 squirrels have such large ear-tufts as the European 

 species, and size depends on locality, or the supply of 

 food, in great degree. It is individuals of the grey 

 variety, however, that are most frequently of a black 

 colour; and this black colouration is of varying degrees 

 of intensity. Sometimes it is a dark brown, sometimes 



