THE NORTH AMERICAN GREY SQUIRREL. 313 



to have permanently twenty-two teeth : among a large number 

 obtained in different seasons, and some of them, from the 

 manner in which their teeth were worn, appearing to be old 

 animals, all were found to have the small front molars in the 

 upper jaw, except a single specimen, which, perhaps, had acci- 

 dentally lost them. The nose is rather obtuse 5 the forehead 

 arched ; the ears are sharply rounded, concave, and both sides 

 of them are covered with hair, which in winter projects upwards 

 about three lines beyond the margin. The fur is coarsest on 

 the forehead j but elsewhere it is a little softer than that of the 

 cat squirrel (S. Cinereus, Linn.). There are many varieties of 

 the present species, but two appear to be very permanent, 

 namely, the grey and the black, both of which have been often 

 found in the same nest, and are of similar size and form. The 

 latter variety has a few white hairs interspersed here and there 

 among the dark brownish black fur of its body, but no white 

 tuft as in the American black squirrel (S. niger, Linn.). 



The species now under notice appears to be the most active 

 and sprightly of any existing in the Atlantic States. It rises 

 with the sun, and continues industriously engaged in search 

 of food during four or five hours in the morning, scratching 

 among leaves, running over logs, ascending trees, and playfully 

 coursing from limb to limb, often making almost incredible 

 leaps from the higher branches of one tree to another. In the 

 middle of the day it retires for a few hours to its nest, resuming 

 its active labours and amusements in the afternoon, and con- 

 tinuing them without intermission till sunset. The chesnut, 

 beech, oak, and maple afford it food, but it appears to prefer 

 the shell-bark (Carya alba) and the several species of hickory, to 

 any other kind of food. Even when the nuts are so green as 

 to afford scarcely any nourishment, it gnaws off the thick epi- 

 dermis, which drops to the ground like rain, and then with 

 its lower incisor teeth, makes a small linear opening in the 

 thinnest part of the shell, immediately over the kernel. In an 

 incredibly short space of time, the nut is cut longitudinally on 

 its four sides, and the whole kernel secured, leaving the portions 



