214 



AROUND AN OLD HOMESTEAD. 



or hunted any in the woods. Such reflections, how- 

 ever, come later in Hfe, and are not apt to suggest 

 themselves to the boy in the woods with a gun on his 

 shoulder. But, surely, these few sentences from his 

 paper will commend themselves to every lover of the 

 squirrels :^ 



"I feel so keenly their v/insome grace when I can watch 

 them in freedom that I can not draw the line between them 

 and myself, except that they are worthier of life than I am. 

 The evolutionists tell us that we are descended from some 

 common ancestor of the monkey. It may be so; and if, as has 

 been conjectured by one scientist, that was the lemur, which 

 is the link between the monkey and the squirrel, I should not 

 object; but I hope that we branched out at the Sciurus, for I 

 would willingly be the far-off cousin of my little pets."^ 



There are many varieties of squirrels in this coun- 

 try. The old woods boasts at least three, the gray, 

 the fox, and the little striped ground squirrels, and 

 there were formerly many flying squirrels. The com- 



' "Billy and Hans," by W. J. Stillman. "Century Magaz'ne," 

 February, 1897; page 623. 



2 In a more recent paper, entitled " Squirrel Land " (" Century Mag- 

 azine," August, 1905,) Mr. Stillman gives it as his opinion that it is the 

 sense of smell which is the real secret of the mystery of the squirrel's gath- 

 ering of the hidden nuts among the leaves. "They evidently smell them 

 in the ground, for I myself have buried them at the depth the squirrels use, 

 and they were always dug up at once." Stillman also refutes the charge 

 that squirrels are depredators of bird's nests or destroyers of trees, and says 

 that the only animal food that he has ever known his pet ones to take was 

 a taste of bacon, which he offered them. Surely Stillman had a genuine, 

 sympathetic understanding of the squirrels. Had he but been more familiar 

 w ith our own gray squirrel of the American forests, instead of the European 

 species, it is possible that we might have had some still more attractive 

 studies of squirrel life from his pen. 



