26 WILD NEIGHBORS chap. 



been bred in the cage from babyhood, and thus 

 must have acted purely under the impulse of in- 

 herited tendency or habit ; moreover, this captive 

 chose out of a large assortment only the acorns 

 and hazel-nuts that grew wild in that locality, 

 never attempting to bury peanuts, pecans, and 

 other foreign fruits, although it ate them readily 

 enough. Darwin, in his book on Earthworms, 

 alludes to this practice, and uses it as an illustra- 

 tion of his doctrine that " the instincts of even the 

 higher animals are often followed in a senseless or 

 purposeless manner." 



Our squirrels do not limit themselves to nuts, 

 however. They are fond of buds, especially in 

 the spring, devouring the maple and elm buds 

 in particular ; and in summer they feed largely on 

 fungi and berries. Raspberries and strawberries 

 please them especially well, and they are accused 

 of choosing the biggest and ripest ones — a very 

 sensible proceeding. They will eat dry kernels of 

 Indian corn, if they are hungry, but delight in it 

 when it is soft and milky, and in the early days 

 of farming in the Western States, where the animals 

 were very numerous, they committed depredations 

 so serious that boys were set to patrol the field 

 and drive them away. I am convinced that they 

 also eat insects. 



The ripening of the mast in the fall is the squir- 

 rel's gala-day, and the beginning of his work-day, 

 too. He does not wait for the nuts to get ripe, 



