THE MOUSE 447 



verj^ large animals, as befits a group of burro wers — true con- 

 tact lovers. The typical squirrels are, however, arboreal, and 

 run over trees and from tree to tree ; nevertheless, even they, 

 by preference, make their nests in holes of trees. Our common- 

 est squirrels are the gray, the little red, the striped or chip- 

 munks, and the spermophiles of the Western States. (Jn the 

 whole, excepting perhaps the red scjuirrel, they are useful ani- 

 mals and deserve to be protected rather than slaughtered 

 It is shameful to see grown men shoot the harmless and com- 



FiG. 40-i, — The harbor seal, Phnca vituUna. From Parker and Haswell, 

 "Manual of Zoolof^y." 



panionable gray squirrel — one of the friendliest of the wild 

 animals. Closely related to the squirrel are the prairie dogs 

 and woodchucks, of which the former make extensive villages 

 in the Great Plains regions, and the latter lives in solitary 

 burrows throughout our northeastern States. The beavers 

 are now almost exterminated. They were the leading engi- 

 neers among animals, building dams across streams in order to 

 make deep ponds for their protection. Near the middle of the 

 pond a great house of mud and sticks was reared ; the inner 

 chamber lay above the level of the pond, but the entrance to it 

 was under water. The pocket gophers (Fig. 405) are invet- 



