THE LIFE OF A GRAY SQUIRREL 55 



now longer than their bodies. The little ones were 

 becoming hearty eaters, their favorite food being 

 hickory nuts. On this day I wore a snowball. 

 Fanny came to the side of the cage and nibbled 

 at the snowball. When I took it off and gave it 

 to her, she ate more than half of it. 



One day later than the above Fanny and her 

 babies quarreled. She was tired of having them 

 boss her about, and refused to submit. 



When ten and a half weeks old Fanny still 

 washed her babies, lapping them with her tongue. 

 She still suckled them, though a few times she 

 had resisted their demands for food. They now 

 looked to be almost as large as the mother. The 

 smallest one was a downright wicked tease. It 

 made a practice of skipping up behind one of the 

 others and biting it, stealing the food of the others, 

 biting them when they wished to eat, and the like. 

 Finally we had to take the little hector out of the 

 cage and give him a cage to himself. 



About a week after this one of the squirrels which 

 remained in the cage died. We know no cause for 

 its death. We took the other little squirrel from 

 the mother, as she had been taking its choice morsels 

 of food from it. We kept it out only three days, as 



