116 IN THE ACADIAN LAND. 



food than twenty times its weight in fir twigs. 

 This ability to tide over a famine with his eyes 

 open is one proof of the red squirrel's high rank 

 in squirrel intelligence. He stands at the head 

 of a large family to be found all over the world 

 excepting Australia, Madagascar, and the Polar 

 regions. With some minor differences of shades 

 of color, and slight variations of markings, our 

 squirrels may be found from Nova Scotia to 

 British Columbia, from Hudson's Bay to the 

 mountains of the Southern States. They are 

 near relations of the gophers and prairie dogs, 

 and woodchucks or ground-hogs. The prairie 

 dogs and woodchucks are grass-eating, burrow- 

 ing, winter-sleeping, slow, stupid creatures in 

 comparison with these pine squirrels, who have 

 descended from a parent stock of the woodchuck 

 type. The ability to climb a tree quickly, to be 

 agile and nimble, to use the front feet for 

 hands, and secure the best food in small quanti- 

 ties are all developments in the line of intelli- 

 gence. In the common striped squirrel we have 

 a creature midway in the upward journey ; he is 

 vastly nearer to the parent stock, he lives in 

 dens of his own making under ground, he sleeps 

 through the winter ; he can climb a tree but not 

 nimbly, he prefers the ground and only climbs 

 for food occasionally. If hard pressed by dogs 



