THE RED SQUIRREL. 125 



a long distance unhurt is a peculiar trick of the 

 tree squirrels. 



While I am amused and interested in the red 

 squirrel, and would not like to see them exter- 

 minated, still it must be admitted that through 

 their ravages on useful birds they are not a desir- 

 able part of our population so far as bread and 

 butter are concerned. But the forests and road- 

 sides would lose a very pretty feature if this 

 nimble bright animal was taken away. He 

 doubtless has his " inalienable " rights to live and 

 be as happy as he can, or he would not be at all. 

 Everything was not made for us, and for our 

 use. We are at the head of the class, but that 

 gives us no title to put all others below us under 

 our feet. Our boasted superiority is, after all, 

 only in mental and moral directions. The foxes 

 and deer have keener sense of smell than we 

 have, birds have better eyes, and superior 

 means of locomotion, spiders sling their wheel 

 nets like trained engineers, fishes return from 

 ocean voyages to their own rivers, birds fly 

 from the Arctic to the Torrid zones with no other 

 guide than their own natural ability, bees and 

 ants organize into governments ; and so one might 

 go on to show that all the mind in this world 

 is not in mankind. The squirrel knows his little 

 world of trees and fences, and old stumps and 



