SCIURUS IIUDSONIUS. 
1 1 3 
impudent and wholly uncalled-for manner, but takes care to keep 
just out of reach. This daring fearlessness is clearly the result of the 
fact that he is not worth the powder necessary for his destruction, 
and he is therefore tolerated, though an acknowledged nuisance. 
But there are times when his conduct becomes so scandalous that the 
shot-gun is brought out for his suppression. He is soon deeply im- 
pressed with the range and effect of this weapon, and, though many 
of his brothers may have perished before the warning was heeded, 
he now becomes, in this particular locality, the most circumspect of 
brutes. He scorns the thought of running away, but grows so 
vigilant, sly, and crafty that the farmer is put to his wit's end to 
devise means for his riddance. 
His curiosity is almost as striking as his impudence, and more 
than once when I have been standing or sitting; motionless in the 
forest he has approached nearer and nearer, eyeing me inquisitively, 
chippering, and shaking his tail, till finally he has jumped upon my 
person, to be off again in a trice. When sleeping on the ground in 
July, 1878, I was awakened, just at daybreak, by a noisy and excited 
chippering close at hand, but before my eyes were fairly open one 
of these mischievous imps alighted in my face. The surprise was 
common, and I must have started rather unceremoniously, for he 
sprang so suddenly to the nearest tree that the prints of his claws 
were visible for sometime after upon my forehead and nose. 
Of all the annoyances that beset the trapper in this region, none 
compare with the Red Squirrel. Not only is he the most vexatious 
of all the animals that roam the Adirondack wilds, but he often 
proves a source of disaster to the fur dealer. From an overhanging 
limb he looks on with unfeigned interest while the trapper arranges 
the bait for the martin or fisher ; but a moment later he has sprung the 
trap and is chippering with exulting derision at the result. He is 
often caught, it is true, but half a dozen others are always ready to 
take his place, and it affords little satisfaction to the hunter, on his 
lonely rounds through the snow-clad forest, to find a worthless 
