THE NORTH AMERICAN GREY SQUIRREL. 315 



stitute for a boat, hoists its broad tail as a sail, and floats 

 safely to the opposite shore.* " This," says Dr. Bachman, 

 " together with many other traits of intelligence ascribed to 

 this species, I suspect to be apocryphal. That they do migrate 

 at irregular, and occasionally at distant periods, is a well- 

 established fact 5 but in the only instance in which I witnessed 

 their migrations (I think it was in the autumn of 1808 or 

 1809), they appeared to me to be not only unskilful sailors, but 

 clumsy swimmers. They swam the Hudson in various places 

 between Waterford and Saratoga : those which I observed 

 crossing the river swam deep and awkwardly, their bodies and 

 tails. being wholly submerged ; several were drowned and carried 

 downward by the stream, and those which succeeded in reaching 

 the opposite bank were so wet and fatigued, that the boys 

 stationed there with clubs easily secured them alive, or killed 

 them. It is doubtful whether any ever return westwardly, but 

 finding forests and food suited to their taste and habits, they 

 remain and propagate their species in their newly explored 

 country, until they are gradually thinned off by the effects of 

 improvement, and the dexterity of the sportsmen. "f 



It may reasonably be doubted whether this species lays up 



* The same story has been told of the common European squirrel for a 

 long period. Lovell says, " Their tail serveth them as a wing in leaping ; 

 they obscure themselves with it in trees, and use it as a saile in the water, 

 swimming upon a bark' 1 (Panzoologia, 1661, p. 123.) Franzius says, when 

 " he is to go through any water, he will get upon a piece of wood; and with 

 his tail serving him instead of a sail, he swims over, carrying his food in his 

 mouth." (History of Brutes, 1670, p. 212.) Klein and Linnseus, who have 

 hitherto enjoyed the credit of originating this story, tell us that in Lapland 

 thousands of squirrels effect their migrations across the broad rivers and lakes 

 by means of these barks; presenting quite the appearance of a large fleet, 

 a perfect navy, of adventurous squirrels. That the " joiner squirrel, time out 

 of mind the fairies' coach maker," can fashion " an empty hazel-nut" into a 

 chariot for Queen Mab to ride in " athwart men's noses as they lie asleep," 

 is more likely than that he should be the accomplished boatman he has been 

 imagined. Some squirrel that had clung to or mounted upon a piece of drift 

 wood to save itself from drowning, when nearly exhausted by the exertion of 

 swimming, probably gave rise to the story, which so far may have originated 

 in truth. J. H. F. 



f Mag. Nat. Hist. (New Series, 1839), vol. iii. p. 226. 



