The Gray Squirrel 135 



the rules, by a certain date each captain posted in the 

 village inn a list of his men, consisting of nine besides 

 hirnself. On the day of the hunt the participants started 

 as early in the morning as they pleased, but ceased shoot- 

 ing at the disappearance of the last rays of the sun. The 

 hunters then collected at the inn, where the squirrels 

 •were counted by judges, and the men sat down to 

 a banquet in the preparation of which quantity was 

 even more to be considered than quality; for the 

 men were literally as hungry as hunters, having worked 

 hard with only a cold lunch since breakfast. The 

 party having the smaller count paid the bill of all. 



These hunts were similar to the wild pigeon hunts 

 of sixty years ago, and to the Jack rabbit hunts of 

 the West. 



The presence or absence of the gray squirrels, or 

 black, which is a color variation of the same species, 

 depends upon the nut crop. They are the most 

 abundant, strange to say, when the nut crop is a 

 failure, which happens about every other year. This 

 is accounted for by the fact that contiguous districts 

 the fall before were without nuts, and so the squirrels 

 went into the adjoining region where the nuts were 

 plentiful. Here there would be enough for all until 

 the addition of the young in the spring, which would 

 increase the number of squirrels above the normal. 



