SQUIRRELS, GOOD AND BAD 135 
public pets in a thousand villages and urban 
parks. In some places, indeed, they are so 
numerous and bold as to injure gardens, and 
to work ruin in roofs and cornices by digging 
through them to make their nests inside. As 
pets in captivity they, like the reds, are not 
very desirable, since they grow cross with age, 
and if more than one is kept in a cage the 
strongest will probably kill or injure the others. 
If allowed the freedom of a room they will work 
havoc, and prove practically untamable. 
It is as easy and much better, however, to 
domiciliate them in the trees about the house, 
by placing high among the branches cabins 
(short sections of hollow logs are best), and 
protecting and feeding their tenants. They 
will come to a window-sill where you place 
regularly cracked nuts, grains of corn or bits 
of cracker, and you will enjoy their society 
much more in their free shy activity than if they 
were immured in a small wire jail. A good 
plan, if you like their visits to your window- 
sill, is to provide them with a pole-bridge from 
the nearest tree, as they are shy of going upon 
the ground where dogs and cats may be. 
