OF WILD ANIMALS 165 



Mexico, we saw about twelve cactus-defended burrows of the 

 pack rat, some of them carefully located in the midst of large 

 stones that rendered digging by predatory animals almost im- 

 possible. 



The beautiful little Desert Kangaroo Rat {Dipodomys 

 deserti) has worked out quite a different system of home pro- 

 tection. It inhabits deserts of loose sand and creosote bushes, 

 where it digs burrows ianumerable, always located amid the 

 roots of the bushes, and each one provided with three or four 

 entrances, — or exits, as the occasion may require. Each burrow 

 is a bewildering labjrrinth of galleries and tunnels, and in at- 

 tempting to lay bare an interior the loose sand caved in, and the 

 little sprite that lived there either escaped at a distant point 

 or was lost in the shuffle of sand. 



The Gray Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis). — ^This beautiful 

 and sprightly animal quickly recognizes man's protection and 

 friendship, and meets him half way. Go into the woods, sit 

 still, make a noise like a nut, and if any grays are there very 

 soon you will see them. The friendships between our Park 

 visitors and the Park's wild squirrels are one of the interesting 

 features of our daily life. We have an excellent picture of Mrs. 

 Russell Sage sitting on a park bench with a wild gray squirrel 

 in her lap. I have never seen red or fox squirrels that even 

 approached the confidence of the gray squirrel in the truce 

 with Man, the Destroyer, but no doubt generous treatment 

 would produce in the former the gray squirrel's degree of con- 

 fidence. 



I never knew an observer of the home life of the gray squirrel 

 who was not profoundly impressed by the habit of that animal 

 in burying nuts in the autumn, and digging them up for food 

 in the winter and spring. From my office window I have seen 

 our silver-gray friends come hopping through eight or ten 

 inches of snow, carefully select a spot, then quickly bore a hole 

 down through the snow to Mother Earth, and emerge with a nut. 

 Thousands of people have seen this remarkable performance. 



