CLASS I. MAMMALIA: ORDER 7. RODENTIA. 375 



ingly neat and cleanly in his person: while enjoying to the full the bounties of summer, he takes 

 good care to lay up an ample store for the winter. He feeds on walnuts, chestnuts, butter-nuts, 

 hazel-nuts, and seeds of various kinds, sometimes taking a bite out of the best side of a sweet 

 apple, or making a meal of Indian corn from the fields, without asking leave of the proprietor. 

 Hoards of nuts are deposited by these provident creatures in certain hiding-places, as under the 

 leaves, beneath logs, amid heaps of brush, in holes in the ground, or in the recesses of a hollow 

 tree, and are resorted to in case of need. Their activity and industry are indeed admirable. B< - 

 fore the nuts are fully ripe they are up and out by break of day, and having ascended the tree, 

 proceed to gnaw off the stems containing the fruit. Having thus dropped a sufficient quantity, 

 they descend, gather the fruit, and having made a breakfast, carry the rest to their granaries. 

 When the fruit has matured and fallen to the earth, they are as busy as farmers in the time of 

 harvest. The quantity they collect and store away is sometimes enormous ; a bushel and a half 

 of hickory-nuts have been found in a single depository in a hollow tree. Sometimes the hogs 

 root out the nuts that are less securely housed, and what would have sufficed for a squirrel during 

 a winter, makes but a single meal for the fortunate but gluttonous finder. 



The Red Squirrel is found from Labrador to the Carolinas, and is especially common in the 

 Eastern and Middle States. He accommodates himself to his situation in respect to his abode; 

 if he chooses to make his nest in some out-house around a farm, he will construct it of the feath- 

 ers which chance to be at hand; in the woods, he builds a nest of twigs, interwoven with leaves, 

 in the high fork of a tree; or perchance he contents himself with some natural hollow in the 

 branch or trunk of a tree. If he lives in a northern region, where the winters are long and 

 severe, he will dig for himself a comfortable burrow in the ground. Though not loving the water, 

 in case of need he can swim and dive, and make a respectable figure in both exercises. In short, 

 the chickaree is a shrewd, lively, dexterous, industrious, Yankee squirrel, taking excellent care of 

 Number One, and caring little about any body else. 



The Common Gray Squirrel or the United States, sometimes called the Northern Gray 

 Squirrel, and sometimes the Migratory Gray Squirrel — the S. leucotis of De Kay — next to the 

 red squirrel, is the most common species in the New England and Middle States. It is at the 

 same time a beautiful animal, and much esteemed as game, and hence is an object of general 

 interest. The upper surface is of a hoary gray, with tawny shades on the feet and neck ; the 

 under surface is white. This is the common appearance, but it is subject to many variations; in 

 some cases, a tawny tinge, or shade of brown or yellow, spreads over parts, or over the whole an- 



. 



THE BLACK VARIETY OF THE GRAY SQUIKItEL. 



mal, while in others, these shades are altogether wanting. There is also a variety called the 

 llack Squirrel, of the same form and size as the Gray Squirrel; its color is a brownish black, 

 he animal appearing quite black on the trees. In summer, its color is somewhat faded. It is 



