128 ANIMAL COMPETITORS 



rain, and a hollow tree is sought and furnished 

 with clean bedding of moss, lichens, etc. Here 

 the young are born rather early in the season, 

 five or six of them, and there they remain 

 together until fully grown. 



"The young squirrels," to quote again Mr. Cram's 

 delightful history, "are most absurd looking little 

 beasts at first, like miniature pug-dogs, blind and 

 naked, with enormous heads. In a few days their 

 fur begins to show like the down on a peach, and as a 

 fringe of short hair along each side of the tail, which 

 at length assumes something of the flattened aspect 

 of that worn by their elders, but without displaying 

 much of the fluffy, shadowy quality of the ideal squir- 

 rel tail until late in the following autumn. . . . 

 Although they do not remain long in the nest, they 

 are seldom seen abroad until fully grown, or very 

 nearly so, at least, which is rather remarkable when 

 you come to consider the number that are brought 

 up each summer in every pine grove or thicket where 

 these squirrels are abundant. . . ." 



Hoiv a red squirrel fares. The red squir- 

 rel eats almost anything he can lay his teeth 

 to, but his chief diet, of course, consists of 

 berries, nuts, acorns and similar hard fruits, 

 especially the seeds found in the cones of ever- 

 green trees the mainstay of those living in 



