Monograph of the Genus Sciunis. 301 



large branch. Tt then proceeds to the extremities of the branches, and 

 breaks off those portions that contain tufts of leaves, with which a com- 

 pact nest is constructed, which, in the inner side, is sometimes lined with 

 such mosses as are found on the bark of trees. In the preparation of 

 this nest a pair is usually engaged, for an hour in the morning, during 

 several successive days ; and the noise they make in cutting the branches, 

 and dragging them with their leaves to the nests, can be heard at a great 

 distance. In winter they reside altogether in holes of trees, where their 

 young, in most instances, are brought forth. Although a family to the 

 number of five or six, probably the produce of a pair from the preceding 

 season, may occupy the same nest during winter, yet they all pair off in 

 spring, when each couple seems to occupy a separate nest, in order to en- 

 gage in the duties of reproduction. The young, in number from four to 

 six, are in the northern states, brought forth in May ; they are of quick 

 growth, and sufficiently advanced in a few weeks to leave the nest: at 

 such times they are seen clinging around the tree which contains their 

 domicile, and as soon as alarmed, they run to the hole, when one of them 

 usually returns, and, protruding his head out of the hole, watches the 

 movements of the intruder. In this stage of growth they are easily cap- 

 tured ; their hole is stopped up, another opening is made beneath, and 

 they are taken out by the hand protected by a glove. They soon become 

 tolerably gentle, and are frequently kept in cages with a wheel attached, 

 in which, as in the interior of a tread mill, they amuse themselves in 

 playing for hours together. Sometimes two are placed together, and they 

 soon learn to accommodate themselves to the wheel, and move together 

 with great regularity. However gentle they may become in confinement, 

 no instance has come to my knowledge of their having produced young 

 in a state of domestication ; although in a suitable cage such a result 

 would in all probability be produced. A tame squirrel is, however, a 

 troublesome pet; it is always ready to use its teeth on the fingers of every 

 intruder on its cage, and does not always spare even its feeder; and 

 when permitted to have the freedom of the house, it soon incurs the dis- 

 pleasure of the prudent housewife by its habit of gnawing chairs, tables, 

 and books. 



" During the breeding season the males, like those of deer and other 

 species, engage in frequent contests, and often bite and wound each other 

 severely. The story of their emasculating each other on these occasions 

 has been so often repeated, that it has become a matter of history, and it 

 would now be somewhat dangerous to set it down as a vulgar error. It 

 might however be advanced, on the other hand, that the admission of 

 such skill and refinement in cruelty would be ascribing to the squirrel a 

 higher degree of physical and surgical knowledge than is possessed by 

 any other quadruped. From the observations I have been enabled to 

 make, I have been led to believe that the error has originated from the 



