Observations on Young Mammals. 123 



furniture, racing up the window-curtains, and leading, as 

 well as they could, well-regulated squirrel lives. It was 

 here, when they were a month or two old (unfortunately, I 

 have no record of the exact date), that they first displayed 

 a very interesting instinct. Many a time I saw one or 

 the other of them take a nut, when there were more 

 than he could eat, look about the room until he found 

 a suitable place, then put the nut down on the carpet in 

 some sheltered corner, such as against the castor of a 

 sofa-leg, or in the corner of the carved foot of a bureau. 

 He would press the nut down on the carpet, and then go 

 through all the motions of patting the earth over it, after 

 which he went about his business as if that nut were 

 safely buried. 



" I have neglected to mention that in a state of nature 

 the adult squirrels of this species do not, as a rule, in 

 times of plenty, gather hoards of nuts ; but take the 

 superfluous ones and bury them singly, at a depth of an 

 inch or two in the ground, digging a little hole, if neces- 

 sary, pushing the nut into the hole, covering it, and 

 then pressing and patting the earth over it. They 

 bury so many that they could hardly remember exactly 

 where each was put ; but they have no trouble in finding 

 most of them by their sense of smell, which seems to be 

 very acute. One is often to be seen running about on 

 the ground, sniffing here and there, and stopping now and 

 then to dig, when he rarely fails to unearth a nut. 



" I was interested to observe that my young squirrels 

 were satisfied to bury their nuts in the nearest approach 

 to a hole that they could find on the ground (carpet), 

 and were not disturbed by the fact that when the 

 process was completed the nut still remained plainly 

 visible. It is also interesting to note that (as I have 

 shown in some detail above) at the time they were removed 



