of food, but with this seeming trait con- 

 spicuous to the occasional observer, it is 

 far from being a glutton. It eats what 

 it wants for the time being, never over- 

 feeds, and will often eat only at stated 

 periods during the day, eating what may 

 be called a full meal only twice daily ; 

 at other times only nibbling at such food 

 as it has in the open. Its chief pro- 

 pensity in the food line is to store away 

 in all sorts of nooks and crevices the un- 

 broken food it does not consume. If 

 kept closely confined in a cage (which is 

 a brutal way to keep so pretty and ac- 

 tive a little creature) it has small oppor- 

 tunity to conceal what it does not eat, 

 but when allowed some measure of lib- 

 erty in a large room, or in several rooms 

 about the house, it soon finds any number 

 of places where it conceals the nuts and 

 other things it does not use at once. 



These places, however, are not always 

 well chosen; for instance, in the pockets 

 of your coat, vest or pantaloons, or be- 

 tween your collar and neck, under the 

 edge of the carpet or under the pillow 

 or bedspread, in slippers or shoes, or in 

 the pockets of clothes that are hung away. 

 If it is out of doors, the nuts will speedily 

 be buried in the ground, or in cavities in 

 the trunks of trees. The next time it 

 gets out in the yard the little rascal be- 

 gins a diligent and persistent hunt for 

 its buried stores, find them with little 

 difficulty, grubs some of them up, eats 

 a few, even after an interval of days, 

 weeks, or even months from date of hid- 

 ing. My pet squirrel this spring was 

 taken several times to a large lot where 

 last summer and fall a large number of 

 nuts were buried, and no time was lost 

 in uncovering scores of them. Guided 

 by its nose, the squirrel's scent seemed 

 to be unerring. One after one, it dug 

 the nuts out, smelled them all over, and 

 then buried those it did not eat in a 

 new spot. This propensity for hiding its 

 food is manifested in the squirrel from 

 the very start. It teaches the improvi- 

 dent men and women of our advanced 

 civilization very wholesome lessons, and 

 points out to the improvident the proper 

 way to provide against a time of want. 



The squirrel is clean by instinct. If 

 called upon to name the cleanest little 

 animal that lives, it would be the little 



bushy-tailed squirrel. I have never yet 

 met any animal, or even bird, whose 

 habits and all whose ways are so gen- 

 uinely cleam No unpleasant odors of 

 any kind that the most acute smell can 

 detect are emitted, from its cleanly little 

 body. All the day long except when at 

 play, resting, sleeping, or taking its 

 meals, the time is spent in keeping its 

 body clean and its tail combed out, which 

 is done by drawing the lateral hairs 

 through its teeth. It washes its face and 

 hands many times a day, employing, 

 when necessary, water from its cup, in 

 its frequent ablutions. It will never 

 soil its own nest. 



In the matter of food it has its likes 

 and dislikes, as have many persons. A 

 nut, as the pecan, which it will relish this 

 week to the exclusion of almost any 

 other, next week it will not touch except 

 to hide away. And so it is with the Brazil 

 nut, the English walnut, the hickory nut, 

 for all of which, as well as for other 

 kinds, its taste seems to rotate — moving 

 in a circle. Then its taste comes back 

 again tc the pecan, or the filbert, which 

 for a time it lives upon. Its favorite 

 nut is the large imported chestnut, which 

 it prefers in its roasted condition. When 

 these vanish in the springtime, it seems 

 to miss its favorite food. A hard-boiled 

 egg and lettuce are often liked. When 

 the early green corn comes 'round in the 

 latter part of June, it lives high on the 

 succulent kernels. Squirrels are fond of 

 fruit, apples, berries and oranges, in their 

 respective seasons, but eat daintily, never 

 at any time showing voraciousness. It 

 does not like to be disturbed when eat- 

 ing. It growls when an attempt is made 

 to take away its nut, throws out its little 

 hands viciously to scratch, being pre- 

 vented from biting by the compulsion of 

 holding the nut in its mouth for security 

 against losing it. The only time it ever 

 shows any anger is when an attempt is 

 made to take from its mouth the nut 

 held firmly in its teeth. At all other 

 times it is good-natured and harmless. 



Fancying at one time my squirrel 

 would enjoy some beech nuts, and being 

 unable to procure any in this city, I sent 

 to Vermont and secured several quarts. 

 To my surprise "Dickey-Dick" refused 

 them, and did not eat over half a dozen 





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