Penjyhania, near Germantown, 313 



not only quite ripe, but likewife not pierc- 

 ed by worms. The nuts and acorns which 

 the Dormice, or Mus Cricetus, Linn, ftore 

 up in autumn, are all in the fame conditi- 

 on. The Swedes relate, that in the long 

 winter, which happened here in the year 

 1 74 1, there fell fuch a quantity of fnow, 

 that the fquirrels could not get to their 

 ilore, and many of them were ftarved to 

 death. 



The damage which thefe animals do in 

 the maize fields, I have already defcribed : 

 they do the more harm, as they do not eat 

 all the corn, but only the inner and fweet 

 part, and as it were take ofFthe hulks. In 

 fpring towards the end of April, when the 

 oaks were in full flower, I once obferved a 

 number of fquirrels on them, fometimes 

 five, fix, or more in a tree, who bit off the 

 flower fl:alks a little below the flowers, and 

 dropt them on the ground : whether they 

 eat any thing oflf them, or made ufe of them 

 for fome other purpofe I know not ; but 

 the ground was quite covered with oak 

 flowers, to which part of the ftalk adhered. 

 For this reafon the oaks do not bear fo 

 much fruit by far, to feed hogs and other 

 animals, as they would otherwife do. 



Of all the wild animals in this country^ 

 the fquirrels are fome of the eafiefl: to tame^ 



efpecially 



