338 REPORT OF THE FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 



does some damage in the orchard and garden, but his principal economic value 

 is in furnishing sport for the man with the gun. 



We come now to the squirrels, of which there are five distinct species found 

 within the limits of New York State. They belong to the family Sciuridae, and 

 are distinguished from the other rodents by their bushy tails and by several 

 anatomical points, of which an important one is the nonfusion of the lower leg 

 bones, which takes place in the mice and their allies, and which allows a much 

 freer use of their legs in climbing trees, a habitat to which most of them are 

 partial. The five species are the red squirrel, the gray squirrel, the chipmunk and 

 two flying squirrels, the common southern form and the northern flying squirrel. 



To the wanderer in the Adirondack forests the red squirrel is probably the 

 commonest mammal seen. Originally described as Scinrus hudsonicus by Erxleben, 

 in the light of more recent and careful research it has been found necessary to 

 divide the species into two subspecies, which have been described by Bangs as the 

 northern or Canadian red squirrel, 5. h. gymnicus, and the southern, 5. h. loquax. 

 Both subspecies are found in the State, the southern extending over the greater 

 portion of it except the Adirondacks, where it is replaced by the northern form. 

 The difference between the two is but slight, consisting mainly in the deeper, 

 redder color of the northern form, and where the two meet each other, individuals 

 intermediate between the two forms occur, and it is impossible to say to which 

 variety they belong. As there is no difference in the behavior or habits of the 

 two forms almost anything that may be said about the one applies to the other. 



If there is any one animal to which dry, scientific terminology does not fit, it 

 would seem to be the red squirrel, for a merrier, happy-go-lucky scamp does 

 not appear to exist. Even in the deepest part of the Adirondacks, in the ever- 

 green forests, where the deep shade would appear to cast a gloom over the spirits 

 of almost anything, the wanderer will find these cheerful animals chasing through 

 the tree tops, or sitting on a limb, chattering and scolding at him in a most 

 impudent manner. 



Dr. Clinton Hart Merriam, to whom we are indebted for a most interesting 

 account of the mammals of the Adirondacks, and whose paper has been fre- 

 quently drawn on in the preparation of this, sums up the character of the red squirrel 

 in a most happy manner. He says: "The Chickaree combines qualities so 

 wholly at variance, so unique, so incomprehensible, and so characteristic withal, 

 that one scarcely knows in what light to regard him. His inquisitiveness, 

 audacity, inordinate assurance, and exasperating insolence, together with his 

 insatiable love of mischief and shameless disregard of all the ordinary customs and 

 civilities of life, would lead one to suppose that he was little entitled to respect; 



