1018 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



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ROCKY MOUNTAIN SHEEP 



But after all is said, the squirrel is essen- 

 tially a gnawer, and the hard shelled nuts are 

 as necessary to his diet as the bark of the 

 poplar and the birch to the beaver. There 

 are the long, chisel-like incisors that need 

 honing and sharpening, and grow out of align- 

 ment unless they have something to work 

 upon as nature has decreed that they should. 

 He is a friendly little chap and those that 

 circumstance have brought into contact with 

 man seem to look to man for help when other 

 sources fail. And why not? As long as he 

 enlivens the park forests with his pert and 

 sprightly little ways, pursues the even tenor 

 of his existence with malice toward none and 

 a bountiful affection for every hand that is 

 extended to him in comradely fashion — pro- 

 vided it holds something to eat — then let him 

 be fed. He is not nearly so hardy as his fur 

 coat would lead one to believe. Imprison 

 him in a cage without room to exercise on a 

 cold winter day, or even a mild winter day, 

 and he will succumb in a few hours. He is not 

 the worker that the red squirrel is, and this 

 is especially so when he has fallen into easy 



ways by depending on man for food. He 

 does not lay up a store of food for winter, and 

 comes out of his nest of leaves only as he feels 

 the need of more fuel to keep the vital spark 

 glowing. 



If he has food to spare, especially food that 

 is not perishable, he will bury it in the 

 ground, and long after the snow has covered it 

 will walk with unerring instinct directly over 

 the place and dig through the white blanket 

 and find it. In the wilderness he has a differ- 

 ent method of procedure; but city life has 

 driven that from his category of ways and 

 means. Here we have taught him otherwise, 

 and the ways and means are left solely in 

 man's hands. We have learned in the Park, 

 where there is an abundance for all wild 

 furred and feathered creatures, that the 

 squirrels would be in pitiable condition in the 

 winter without help; and we help them by 

 scattering corn on the cob throughout the 

 woods. It is a trivial matter to concern one's 

 self about the squirrels, but it requires 

 scarcely an iota of the concern to provide 

 them with the bit that they need. E.R.S. 



