4 WILD NEIGHBORS CHAP. 
able between types of our gray squirrel from widely 
separated regions, accompanied by local peculiari- 
ties of habit, at first misled naturalists, but only one 
species is now recognized, — Sczurus carolinensts. 
The first litter of young among the wild gray 
squirrels is seen in March in the warmer parts of 
the country, and somewhat later in the more north- 
ern States and in Canada. At least one more 
brood usually follows before winter. Our friends 
in the grove, however, sure of food and lodging, 
bring out their broods with little regard to season. 
One female, which has been known to us for years 
as the “mother squirrel,” seems rarely without a 
family; and Dr. Phillips assures me that he has 
known her to bear four litters in a single twelve- 
month, thus braving all sorts of weather. 
This exhibits the hardihood of these little ani- 
mals. No weather seems cold enough to daunt 
them. They endure the semi-arctic climate north 
of Lake Superior, remain all the year on the peaks 
of the Adirondacks, where their only food is the 
seeds of the black spruce, and appear in midwinter 
in Manitoba; but when a sleet storm comes, and 
every branch and twig is encased in ice, then the 
squirrel stays at home. I remember one such storm 
which was of unusual severity and did vast damage. 
The ice clothed the trees for several days in suc- 
cession, and the imprisoned animals became very 
hungry. The Doctor and I had swung from tree 
to tree a line of bridges made of poles along which 
