MORE SQUIRRELS 



on again ; unless the same trees should continue 

 bearing for successive years, in which case the 

 squirrels are likely to settle down indefinitely or 

 until a short crop starts them off again. As a 

 wet summer is thought to blight the blossoms of 

 the hickory, but to have an opposite effect on 

 the chestnut and, I think, the acorn crop, one 

 may to a certain extent judge from the character 

 of the summer where to look for gray squirrels 

 in the following autumn. Where the various 

 kinds of nut-bearing trees are associated about 

 equally in the same forest, I am inclined to think 

 that certain families of squirrels establish them- 

 selves and occupy the same hollow trees for 

 generations, the only movement being the occa- 

 sional influx from less favourable districts, and the 

 departure of the younger ones when the colony 

 is threatened with overcrowding. 



The vast migrations which formerly gave this 

 species the name of migratory squirrel, seem 

 now to be restricted to the unimportant wander- 



231 



