66 Cincinnati Society of Natural History. 



the hard ground, and bounding into the air like a rubber ball, it ran 

 away to its bed tree, leaving the hunters standing around looking 

 after it in blank amazement. 



The Fox Squirrel is not nearly so active as the Gray, and resorts 

 to different tactics. It crouches down flat on a thick limb, and no 

 matter to which side of the tree the hunter goes, the sq.uirrel 

 always moves to the opposite side. Some years ago, while quail- 

 hunting in Clark County, Ohio, I came suddenly on one of this 

 species which ran up a small isolated oak tree. It always kept the 

 opposite side of the limb from the spot on which I stood. I began 

 shooting at it, but failed to dislodge it. After shooting away two 

 pounds of No. 8 shot, all I had, I returned to the house for more, 

 but on my return to the tree the squirrel was gone. If two hunters 

 are together, and go to opposite sides of the tree, the Fox Squirrel is 

 an easy animal to shoot. In early times the Gray Squirrel was 

 migratory in this vicinity, and at intervals passed through in pro- 

 digious numbers, swimming large bodies of water and not stopping 

 at any obstacle in their way. I have seen several migrations, 

 which always took place in the fall, along the Great Miami. 

 Woods that held but feu- squirrels, would suddenly be alive with 

 them; have seen dozens running along rail fences single hie. The 

 theory of the old hunters was that, when they arrived at maximum 

 numbers in a locality, they would eat up the food and move off 

 in search of "fresh fields and pastures new.." I have heard 

 old residents along the Great Miami speak of killing numbers of 

 squirrels as they emerged exhausted from the river which ihey had 

 swam across in their effort to go somewhere 



Our respected and venerable citizen, Jacob Hoffner, says (August 

 29, 1889): "I have a vivid recollection of the migration of the 

 squirrels in vast quantities in the days of boyhood. The last one 

 that I remember was in the autumn of 18 16. They were trav- 

 eling from the south to the north, and swimming the Ohio River, 

 just below Covington, as it is now. but then a dense forest. I went 

 to the river with other boys, armed with clubs, waded knee-deep 

 into the water and waited the approach of the squirrels, and then 

 with our clubs dispatched them. In that manner dozens were cap- 

 tured. The only reason I have for this migration, was that the crops 

 of the forest, such as hickory and beech nuts, acorns and walnuts, 

 etc. 5 gave out. In the early days squirrels abounded in this coun- 

 try: so much so, that we bo\ s were obliged to go to the fields a 



