36 



The Red and the Gray Squirrels are sworn enemies. The 

 former is very pugnacious and will generally drive away his 

 larger adversary. This fact, coupled with the emasculated 

 condition in which the males of the larger species are some- 

 times found, has given rise to the popular fallacy that the 

 Red Squirrel castrates the Gray. Although this may hap- 

 pen in very rare instances, it is a well known fact that the 

 emasculation is performed by the grub of a bot-fly, the 

 Guterebra emasculator, of Fitch (N. Y. Rep. \ p. 478). 



Sciurus carolinensis leucotis (Gapper). Northern Gray 



Squirrel. 



This beautiful squirrel, though not nearly so common as 

 the preceding species, is found in considerable numbers in 

 suitable situations throughout the county, where it is still 

 sought as game by sportsmen, half a dozen being considered 

 a good day's bag. 



I quote from a description of the Genesee Country by 

 Robert Munro, published in 1804, to show their great abun- 

 dance there at that time (Doc. Hist 12 , p. 1175). 'Squirrels 

 are so numerous some years as considerably to injure corn ; 

 and upwards of two thousand of them have sometimes been 

 killed in a day, which is occasionally appointed for that pur- 

 pose by the inhabitants.' 



In some localities two phases of the Gray Squirrel occur, 

 a gray and a black. Both may be found in the same nest 

 and belonging to the same litter, as in the case of the gray 

 and the red phases of the common Screech Owl (Megascops 

 asio). I have never seen a black squirrel that was taken in 

 Westchester County. 



In this locality the young are born about the middle of 

 March or the first of April, generally in a nest of sticks and 

 leaves built high up in a convenient fork of some large tree. 

 I have also known the young to be brought forth in a hollow 

 tree. When born they are in an exceedingly helpless condi- 



