342 REPORT OF THE FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 



well, and in the spring bring forth their young. Then the young and the old ones 

 together bring the number up to its maximum. Then the nut crop fails and the 

 squirrels migrate, just where we do not know. Merriam finds that a good nut 

 year is a good one for the squirrels' rival, the redheaded woodpecker, between 

 the two of which a constant warfare is waged for the possession of the beechnuts 

 which still hang on the winter trees, and which the woodpecker considers his 

 exclusive property, harassing and driving away the squirrels, who find it easier 

 to steal them than to dig up their own buried supplies. Gray squirrels do not 

 make large hoards of their nuts, but bury them one or two at a time in holes in 

 the ground, and they never seem at a loss to be able to find them. 



At the present time the clearing away of the extensive forests which once 

 covered the State, and the change to an agricultural country, has greatly diminished 

 the natural habitat of the gray squirrel, and his numbers, we know from history, 

 are far less than they were 150 years ago. In 1749 they invaded Pennsylvania in 

 such numbers that the entire agricultural district was endangered, and it was 

 necessary to offer a premium of three pence a head for them. As a result 

 640,000 individuals were killed, necessitating a payment of 8,000 pounds sterling, 

 a large drain on the treasury of a State at that time. Later, in 1764, we find 

 that in the western part of New York they were so common that Munro, in a 

 "Description of the Genesee Country," says: "Squirrels are so numerous in some 

 years as considerably to injure corn; and upwards of 2,000 of them have sometimes 

 been killed in a day, which is occasionally appointed for that purpose by the inhab- 

 itants. The most common kinds of them are the black and the red; the gray 

 colored being very scarce." On account of the necessity of combating these the 

 "squirrel hunts" he mentions were organized, all the inhabitants of a certain 

 area who could manage to get any kind of a firearm collecting together at one 

 place and being divided into two parties. Then, from early morn till the sun set 

 there was constant destruction, and then a supper, paid for by the party which 

 had shot the fewest squirrels. 



These days are past, probably never to return, for, though we still have small 

 migrations of the squirrels, the immense hosts are gone. Now, even where the 

 squirrels are known to be common, we can wander all day without getting a 

 shot at one, for they are adepts at keeping on the other side of the tree from 

 you, and the tip of his tail, as he goes around, is all you. are liable to see. 



From the economic point of view there is little to be said about the gray 

 squirrel, for now that his numbers are so depleted the damage they do is 

 but trifling. True, they steal corn and fruit from the farmer, but they are 

 guiltless of the red squirrels' crimes against the birds. 



