THE SQUIRRELS AND OTHER RODENTS OF THE ADIRONDACKS. 34I 



that it is often a difficult matter to get a shot at him. In his undisturbed 

 haunts, however, his curiosity often gets the better of him, and when discovered 

 he is just as liable to sit on the branch and chatter and scold and stamp, some- 

 times approaching closer till he comes right up to you. Merriam tells of one that 

 jumped on his face while he was asleep in camp. This curiosity was the source 

 of considerable trouble in earlier days when there was more trapping in the 

 Adirondacks than there is how; for after sitting on a limb and watching the trapper 

 bait his traps and leave them, down would come the squirrel and spring the trap. 

 True, he was often caught; but that was small satisfaction to the trapper. 



The red squirrel is a good swimmer, and may often be seen crossing the lakes 

 and streams with much of his head, back and tail out of the water. This occurs 

 most frequently during the periodical migrations, such as take place at Lake 

 George, where the chestnuts are common on the eastern side, but rare on the 

 western. Sometimes they even cross the widest parts of Lake Champlain. 



The gray squirrel, Sciurus carolinensis Icucotis Gapper, unlike the red, does not 

 like the dense coniferous forests of the Adirondacks, and is consequently absent, 

 or very rare, from the greater part of the interior. On the edges, where the hardwood 

 trees are, and throughout the greater part of the State, he is quite common. The 

 best place to study the gray squirrel is near villages or farms where he is undisturbed ; 

 for he is quick to perceive the advantages of civilization, and in our parks he 

 often becomes a most arrant beggar, dependent entirely upon the bounty of man. 

 Still we must not judge the whole race by the degradation of the few; for, 

 though not equalling the red squirrel in activity or industry, he is still a pretty 

 good fellow. 



Like the red squirrels, the gray, where he is found in the Adirondacks has his 

 nest in a hollow tree, while in warmer regions he builds outside nests. These 

 closely resemble those of the crow, being placed far up a tree, where a branch 

 leaves the trunk, or in a fork, and are composed of sticks, lined with a softer bark, 

 and with the opening on one side. In them, three to five young are born in 

 April, and in a most undeveloped stage, without hair and with fast-closed eyes.. 

 In other regions two litters are often brought forth in one season, the second coming 

 in September or October. 



The staple food of the gray squirrel are the beechnuts and butternuts, which 

 are the commonest kinds in the region under consideration, and his abundance, 

 like that of all the squirrels, is dependent upon the supply of nuts. As 

 mentioned before, the beechnut crop is large every other year, and the number 

 of squirrels is greatest in the summer and fall of the following year, for the 

 reason that when the nuts are abundant the squirrels come from all parts, winter 



