272 THE SQUIRREL. 



white-thorn bush on our approach. There was 

 no other cover near, the bush standing alone in 

 a field ; yet as we passed within a few feet of 

 it nothing could be seen of the squirrels, so 

 cleverly had they made the best of what little 

 cover the leafless twigs afforded. In the woods, 

 the squirrels desirous of avoiding detection manage 

 always to place the trunk of a tree or a good stout 

 branch between themselves and the passer-by, 

 clinging to the bark and edging in jerky move- 

 ments this way and that ; and so still do they keep 

 on thinking themselves unobserved that it takes a 

 keen eye to pick them out. The result is that, 

 travelling through woods where they abound, one 

 may catch only an occasional glimpse of a fleeing 

 red coat, the squirrel generally disappearing as 

 soon as he has gained the branches. If not 

 molested, however, they become very tame, and 

 the gray squirrels in the park at Exeter can be 

 seen any day taking food from the hands of 

 children. 



STORAGE. 



The squirrel is notoriously a food-hoarder, and 

 quite early in the autumn the storage fever seems 

 to take possession of him. At this season each 

 squirrel has his individual range, seldom travelling 

 much more than a hundred yards from some 

 central point. This point is possibly a hollow tree, 

 deep down in which the little tree-dweller has his 

 home, consisting of bed and larder chiefly larder. 

 Here, quite early in the season, the squirrel begins 

 to lay up his winter store, but it is to be feared he 

 is not very methodical about it, busily storing one 

 day, and eating a good deal of what he has stored 

 the next. He opens nuts by gnawing the small 



