with their nesting habits as I am with those of the 

 squirrels in the piny woods of New Jersey. The 

 red squirrels are very abundant among the pines, 

 and here they live in nests the year around. 



These beds are A^ery bulky, built mostly of 

 cedar bark, stripped fine and matted into an 

 irregular mass the size of a hat. The doorways 

 open from the bottoms or sides, leaving the roofs 

 without a crack and perfectly waterproof. 



Sometimes an abandoned crow's nest is taken 

 for the foundation. In this a deep, soft bed of 

 newly shredded bark is made, and a thatch of 

 the same material laid on above. Such a nest 

 will not rock and sway when the winds are high, 

 as the gray squirrel's often will ; for the crows 

 did not build out in the hands of the branches, 

 but close up on the shoulders. What it lacks of 

 that kind of thrill, however, will be more than 

 made good by the comfort and security obtained 

 from the thick nest-bottom of the crows. 



About my home in New England Chickaree 

 is almost a ground-squirrel, rarely traveling a 

 road higher than a stone wall. But in the 

 Southern pines he runs the tree-tops, scam- 

 pering along the dizzy roads almost as fast as 

 [246] 



