10 WILD NEIGHBORS CHAP. 
on the pliant limbs by slow degrees. It is many a 
long day after they are able to chase one another 
up and down and under and around a rough oak 
trunk, in the liveliest game of tag ever witnessed, 
before they can skip about the branches and leap 
from one to the other with confidence in their 
sécurity. The patient mother understands this, 
and encourages them very gently to “try, try 
again.” I remember one such lesson. The old 
one marched ahead slowly, uttering low notes, as 
if to say: “Come on, my dears. Don’t be afraid!” 
Every little while she would stop, and the two well- 
grown children following would creep up to her, 
and put their arms around her neck in the most 
human fashion, as if protesting that it was almost 
too hard a task. 
This loving-kindness is extended to other young 
squirrels whenever no question of family rivalry 
interferes, as is shown, in a most amiable way, by 
incidents I have narrated elsewhere. 
In spite of this I do not believe that, broadly 
speaking, the gray squirrel is a very intelligent 
animal, or has much brain-power. On the con- 
trary, to my mind this squirrel, except within a 
very limited field, where a part of his brain has 
been developed by his necessities, is an unusually 
stupid animal. Dr. T. Wesley Mills of Montreal, 
who has made a study of brute psychology, has 
essayed to show that squirrels are the most intelli- 
gent of rodents; but even granting this (which I 
