LITTLE BEASTS OF FIELD AND WOOD 



of his incisors, and then back to his nest with the 

 fan-Hke cluster of leaves waving above his head. 

 In spite of the squirrel's general distaste for hot 

 weather, this one worked uninterruptedly for 

 hours in a temperature of something like eighty 

 or eighty-five degrees in the shade, with not 

 another of his kind to be seen or heard in the 

 vicinity. Judging from what I saw at the time, I 

 concluded that the leaves were merely arranged 

 in a solid mass, and that the chamber was formed 

 afterwards by the squirrel forcing his way into 

 the centre from one side, and without any 

 attempt at a lining whatever. In this vicinity 

 they are usually placed in beeches and made of 

 leaves from the same tree, whether the beech- 

 trees happen to be bearing that year or not. 

 Although of such frequent occurrence, I cannot 

 learn that they are used with any degree of regu- 

 larity. I remember that when gunning with other 

 boys it was the custom, when nothing better 

 offered, to fire at these nests whenever they 



234 



