THE RED SQUIRREL. 123 



same. Our red squirrel keeps up a family habit 

 when he lays aside something he may need 

 further on in the season ; but how does he come 

 to cut and hide the cones before the seeds in 

 them are ripe, but just in the " nick of time," if 

 he is to get them at all ? Let us consider the 

 case. The cones hang tips downward from the 

 ends of the branches. When the seeds are ripe 

 the scales over them become dry and curl up- 

 ward, and the winds toss the branches, and the 

 winged seeds fall out during the highest winds 

 and are scattered wide away. Now it is clear 

 that the squirrel could not get the ripe seeds ; 

 before that could be done he must cut away the 

 cone. But there he is met with a difficulty : the 

 seeds do not ripen and all get clear on the same 

 day out of a cone. The scales near the small 

 end curl up first. There is no proper time to 

 cut a ripe one and secure more than a very small 

 portion of the seeds. Searching for food very 

 long ago in squirrel history they put their teeth 

 into the green cone, and discovered the juicy 

 seeds and ate them. What they did not need 

 they hid away, as they would do with some other 

 food, and the habit was of so much value that 

 the squirrels who did that were able to live over 

 winter in pine forests. Our squirrels now do by 

 inherited habit what was acquired by other gen- 



