I OUR GRAY SQUIRRELS 17 
and continue it steadily in one direction for hun- 
dreds of miles, is hard to discover. It did not 
seem to be lack of food, for they were always fat. 
The migration was leisurely performed, too — 
never in too great a hurry to prevent feasting 
upon any fields of corn or sometimes of unripe 
grain that came in the way. Such a visitation, 
therefore, was like a flight of devouring locusts, 
one chronicler alleging that the sound they made 
in the maize in stripping off the husks to get at 
the succulent kernels was equal to that of a field 
full of men at harvesting. There is no difficulty, 
moreover, in judging of the effect such migrations 
would have in restoring equilibrium in sciurine pop- 
ulation, since, of the surplus which started, few sur- 
vived long, and the remnant at last faded away 
among the Alleghanies or in some other distant 
locality without seeming to increase the number of 
squirrels there. 
The curiosity and gayety of the gray squirrel 
are perhaps his strongest personal characteristics. 
Nothing unusual escapes his attention, and he is 
never satisfied until he knows all about it. He is 
the Paul Pry, the news-gatherer, of the woods. 
When a new building is in course of erection in 
or near the grove, the workmen no sooner leave it 
than half a dozen squirrels go over and under and 
through it, examining every part. If I trim away 
branches and lay them in a heap, or repair a 
fence, or do anything else, Mr. Gray inspects it 
c 
