THE SQUIRRELS AND OTHER RODENTS OF THE ADIRONDACK^. 347 



exercise they draw themselves into a bunch with the tail over the back after the 

 manner of squirrels, and set briskly to work on the nut or other food which 

 they may have received. They are almost as fond of riding as of running and 

 work their passage by running till the wheel is in rapid motion and then clinging 

 to its wires, and so are carried around and around, the pure white of the under 

 side of the body contrasting prettily with the soft brownish gray of the back 

 and sides as each comes into view. When both are in the wheel one often rides 

 while the other turns the wheel, the latter bounding over the other as each turn 

 brings him around, and no matter how rapidly the wheel turns these movements 

 are executed with perfect exactness and gracefulness. Being desirous of knowing 

 with seme degree of accuracy how rapidly the wheel moved, I made some 

 experiments for the purpose and found that the usual rate of revolution was from 

 sixty to over a hundred and twenty times a minute, and, as the wheel is forty-four 

 inches in circumference, when its rate is the latter of the two numbers named, 

 the squirrel turning it must travel four hundred and forty feet a minute, or 

 about five miles an hour, a distance requiring a great many steps when they are 

 as short as squirrels must take. The sides of the wheel are formed of spokes 

 radiating as in any wheel; these spokes are only five inches apart at the circum- 

 ference and of course constantly grow less towards the center ; yet through this 

 narrow space which passes, when the wheel is at full speed, in the sixteenth 

 part of a second, they dart in and out with perfect ease. So quickly do they 

 move that the eye can scarcely follow them ; one instant the squirrel is in the wheel 

 running with all his might, and the next he is seated on a shelf at the opposite 

 end of the cage, the wheel whirling behind him. * * * Indeed it is impossible 

 for them to be awkward or clumsy in any of their movements. Though usually very 

 quiet, they are not always displeased with noise, if it be a lively one; for instance 

 they drop a nut in the wheel and then as it rattles while the wheel moves they 

 are highly delighted, sometimes more so than some of the other listeners. * * * 

 Now and then the freak takes one or the other to leave the wheel altogether for 

 several days, and in the meantime they relieve their over-buoyant feelings by 

 executing a brilliant series of somersets with an agility and daring that would 

 excite the envy of the most skillful acrobat. They always turn backward, going 

 completely over and alighting almost exactly upon the spot from which they started. 

 Xow they run a few steps before going over, and now stop and turn round and 

 round as if a spit ran through the center of the body, on which it turned. 

 * * * I once found one of them at my inkstand eagerly lapping the ink as if 

 he enjoyed it greatly; pretty soon, however, he left it with sneezings, sniffings 

 and grimaces of a most comical sort, but the next chance he had he tried to get 



