370 
VERTEBRATA. 
in its retreat for the winter supply. Sometimes it mounts tTie trees, but generally is seen upon 
the ground. 
Sir Francis Head gives us the following account of his meeting with a squirrel in Canada, prob- 
ably one of this species, " I was waiting the approach of a large flock of wild-fowl ; but a little 
villain of a squirrel on the bough of a tree close to me, seemed to have determined that even now 
I should not rest in quiet ; for he sputtered and chattered with so much vehemence, that he 
attracted the attention of my dog. This was truly mortifying ; for he kept his eyes fixed on the 
squirrel. With my hand, I threatened the little beast ; but he actually set up his back and defied 
me, becoming even more passionate than before ; till, all of a sudden, as if purposely to alarm the 
game, he dropped plump within a couple of yards of Rover's nose. This was too much for the 
latter to bear, so he gave a bounce and sprang upon the impertinent squirrel ; who in a second 
was out of his reach, cocking his tail and showing his teeth, on the identical bough where he had 
sat before. Away flew all the wild-fowl, and my sport was completely marred. My gun went 
involuntarily to my shoulder to shoot the squirrel ; but I felt I was about to commit an act of 
sheer revenge on a courageous little animal, which deserved a better fate. As if aware of my 
hesitation, he nodded his head with rage, and stamped his fore-paAvs on the tree ; while in his 
chirruping, there was an intonation of sound which seemed like contempt. What business had 
I there, trespassing on his domain, and fi'ightening his wife and little family, for whom he was 
ready to lay down his life ? There he would sit in spite of me, and make my ears ring with the 
sound of his war-whoop, till the spring of life should cease to bubble in his little heart." 
Germs SQUIRREL : Sciurus. — From the Groimcl- Squirrels we now come to the Tree-Squir- 
rels^ which are, at the same time, the True Squirrels. They are a numerous, very pretty, and 
highly amusing genus of rodent animals, of small size, which reside and find their food chiefly in 
trees, and. are as much at home there as the handed animals, which they in general surpass in the 
velocity of their motions, while their aspect is as pleasing as that of the monkeys is repulsive. 
Squirrels are exceedingly numerous as a genus, and their characters at once distinguish them 
fi'om all the rest of the rodentia. 
They are all possessed of clavicles, which enable them to use their fore-legs like arms, either in 
grasping or in conveying substances to the mouth, but in doing so they have to use both legs, as 
the paws are not sufliciently prehensile to be used as hands. The character from which they 
get the name Scmrus, which means " shadowing tail," and of which the common terra squirrel is 
merely a corruption, is the form of the tail. This tail is very long, and it is usually covered with 
long hair, or fur, which diverges into two parts on the under side, somethiag after the man- 
ner of the two webs of a feather; and the length is generally sufficient to overshadow the whole 
body, when the tail is brought forward curving over the back. The gnawing-teeth, in the lower 
jaw of the squirrels, are very much compressed. The hind-feet have five toes, and the fore-feet 
four, but sometimes the inner toe also appears on the fore-feet as a simple tubercle ; they have 
four tuberculous teeth on each side of both jaws, and a small one in advance of the rest in each 
side of the upper jaw, but it falls out at rather an early age. The claws upon their toes are 
crooked and very sharp-pointed, so that they can take hold of small inequalities of the bark of 
trees, and the toes have a certain degree of lateral motion, by means of which they can grasp to- 
ward the center of the foot. 
They are very agile, formed for climbing and leaping, and even when they are in a state of 
confinement, and abundantly fed, they do not feel at home unless they have in their cage a small 
mill, or tread-wheel, upon which they can exercise themselves. Their spine is" very elastic, and 
accords well with the ready action of the joints of their limbs, so that they are nearly as nimble 
on -fche ground as they are in climbing and scrambling about among the branches. Their action 
upon the ground is not running but leaping, in which the elasticity of the spine comes into play 
at every step; and their action is something intermediate between that of the hare and the jerboa, 
less of a running action than the first, and less of a set of boundings from the hind-feet than the 
second. Their limbs are all articulated, so that the}'' can be stretched outward, which prevents 
that steady motion parallel to the mesial plane of the body which is essential in an animal which 
has habitually to walk the ground. 
