226 BRITISH MAMMALS 



remarkable plumes of hair rising to an apex, and giving the 

 creature at this season an appearance of possessing large and 

 pointed ears. At almost all times there are a iz-^ long hairs at 

 the point of the squirrel's ear, but these become strengthened in 

 November into a tuft of considerable size from half an inch to 

 an inch long. This tuft begins to diminish in April, and in 

 May is much reduced in size. 



The changes of colour in the squirrel also vary to a re- 

 markable degree according to season. In the winter-time the 

 squirrel's colour is dark brownish-red on the head, along the 

 back, and down the middle of the tail. The sides of the body 

 are quite gray. The limbs are brownish-red with a tendency to 

 bright chestnut. The throat, chest, belly, and inside of the 

 limbs are white. The thick plumes along the sides of the tail are 

 dark reddish-brown. At the end of April this winter coat begins 

 to lose the gray sides, and in the early summer the pretty little 

 animal is a bright chestnut-red above and white below. But as 

 the summer advances the long hair on either side of the tail 

 tends to become a buff colour, and it is not uncommon to meet 

 with examples in August in which the tail is quite cream-coloured 

 at the sides, only retaining the darker brown down the middle. 



Squirrels breed once a year, in April or May. They are 

 monogamous — that is to say, they mate in pairs — and once mated 

 remain attached to one another for years. The nest in which 

 the young are to be born is constructed of interlaced shreds of 

 moss, leaves, leaf stalks, grass, and strips of bark, and is placed 

 generally in a fork between two branches or in a hollow in the 

 trunk. Usually it is so arranged as not to be conspicuous, and 

 often resembles merely a thickening of the trunk when placed 

 at the angle between two branches. The young are born in 

 June, seldom more than four in a litter ; and although able to 

 shift for themselves in a month or six weeks, they continue to 

 associate with their parents until the spring of the next year. 

 When eating, the squirrel seats itself on its hind legs with the 

 tail coiled over the back, and holds its food between the fore 

 paws. When scrambling up or down a tree, it presses its body 



