NOTES OF A FUR HUNTER. 659 
March, and April. This year there are no beechnuts, 
and they will probably disappear early. As soon as 
they begin to eat in the spring, a plug comes away 
from them, black, shining, and hard, resembling gum, 
so much so, that some say they eat gum to form it; but it 
is not so, for the same came from the tame ones in my 
barn, where they could get no gum. I think it is from 
the mucous in the intestines. In the barn they covered 
themselves with straw all over, excepting their ears. 
Their paws were brought forward around the nose, which 
was dropped forward and downward. They don’t suck 
their paws. When I spoke to the tame ones in my barn ` 
during the winter, they would look up very bright, but 
would run out their tongue, gape, and drop their heads 
forward and down between their paws again. I could 
see the motion of their breathing, and in a cold day could 
see their breath condensing. I noticed this particularly, 
because I have heard it said that they did not breathe 
when hibernating. In the woods they make for winter- 
quarters a nest of leaves and cedar bark, and I have 
sometimes seen cedar and fir boughs in their nest. I don’t 
think they get enough of the material to cover themselves 
as completely as the tame ones did in my barn. 
Bears bite fir and spruce trees, and tear down the bark, 
and when one has bitten a tree, others are apt to do the 
same, and thus their ranges or lines of travel become 
spotted as it were. They follow their ranges year after 
year. The skin of a bear is worth from $3.00 to $12.00. 
Gray SQUIRREL (Sciurus Carolinensis Gmelin). Have 
Seen a few Gray Squirrels this year; never saw but one 
before. . 
Rep SQUIRREL (Sciurus Hudsonius Pallas). The Red 
Squirrel deposits his winter store in several places. The 
