180 With Rod and Gun in New England 



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"I never cared much for either species, for food," said the Doctor; 

 " they do not compare with the gray squirrel in this respect. I used to shoot 

 a good many in my younger days, and I remember they used to be very pal- 

 atable in a fricassee, or squirrel pie. That is another species which is com- 

 mon in many parts of New England but does not come here, I believe." 



" No, its habitat is chiefly confined to forests of nut-bearing trees. 

 As you know, it is one of the most beautiful and graceful of the inhabi- 

 tants of our forests, in which it generally makes its home, hardly ever 

 venturing from them, unless occasionally, when the Indian corn is ripe, it 

 enters the fields to add a little to its winter store of nuts ; the amount 

 which it pilfers could hardly be missed, however/unless the field should 

 happen to be in or near the woods." 



The gray squirrel prefers forests of chestnuts and oaks, in which its 

 winter store can be readily collected. The first heavy frost is the signal 

 for this work to commence, and the dropping of the chestnuts and acorns, 

 which the frost has loosened, accompanied by the rustling of the squirrel 

 through the newly-fallen leaves, as it gathers the nuts together and care- 

 fully deposits them in hollow trees and crevices of rocks, or buries them 

 in some secure place beneath the leaves, are the sounds most intimately 

 connected with our woods in the autumn. 



The squirrel is much hunted by sportsmen, who generally use a small 

 gauge rifle, and he is a fairly good shot, indeed, who secures a bag in a 

 day's outing ; the little rodent's activity, the rapidity with which it scam- 

 pers up and down the trees and leaps from one tree-top to another, and the 

 cunning with which it hides from the gunner, dodging to the opposite side 

 of the tree from him, renders the sport highly exciting. 



The summer nest is built in a tall tree, at the junction of several limbs 

 with the trunk. It is composed of sticks and leaves, and is lined with soft 

 grass and ferns ; in this the young are reared, and live with the female till 

 they are old enough to shift for themselves. At the approach of winter, 

 some hollow in a tree is selected, sometimes the abandoned nest of a 

 woodpecker, in which a warm nest is built, composed of grass and soft 

 leaves ; this is the winter home of usually the whole family. In early spring 

 the young are driven off by the old ones, who soon build the summer nest, 

 in which to rear another family. The young, after being driven off, soon 

 pair, and in their turn become heads of families. 



The habits of this animal are very interesting. You may be walking 

 through the woods ; shortly you hear what you at first think to be the bark- 

 ing of a small dog; on listening you discover your mistake; the abrupt 

 notes, qua-qua, with chattering gutteral additions, proceed from the tall tree 

 a few rods from you; you cautiously steal on tiptoe to the foot of the tree, 

 but do not see the animal, even after looking carefully on every side. You 

 know the little fellow is there, for he could not possibly have got out of 



