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MAMMALIA. 
not been inoperative in determining the distribution of many of our 
lower animals. Indeed, when nearly related species, having similar 
habits, and subsisting in the main upon the same kinds of food, are 
found inhabiting contiguous areas,- — areas of equal altitude and sub- 
ject to identical climatic conditions, — and we learn that these species 
are limited, so far as we can ascertain, solely by the character of the 
arboreous vegetation, we are forced to admit that influences other 
than those which have to do merely with the necessities of existence 
have played an important part in fixing the arbitrary and irregular 
boundaries of the places occupied by each. In the case of the present 
species it seems probable that the dark and sombre hues, the 
oppressive silence, and the imposing solitude of our evergreen 
forests impress it with a pervading sense of gloom and sadness 
against which its cheerful nature revolts. The red squirrel teems 
with such a superabundance of hilarity that he easily overcomes this 
feeling of oppression which his larger cousin is powerless to combat. 
In sparsely populated districts that have long been settled, one 
sometimes finds, half-hidden among the trees, a neglected but time- 
honored mansion, near which a row of stately elms, extending from 
some neighboring wood to distant fields, leads the eye past clumps 
of scattered butternuts, beneath whose gnarled and spreading 
branches groups of grazing cattle seek shelter from the noonday 
sun. Here, in early autumn, a few joyous Squirrels gather at break 
of day to feast upon the yet green nuts. Following the line of elms 
■they leap from tree to tree or run upon the zig-zag fence beneath, 
fairly revelling with delight ; and long before the savory nuts are 
ripe, indeed when they have scarce attained their growth, the eager 
Squirrels haste to pluck them as they hang in heavy clusters from 
the boughs. While biting through the adhesive, staining velvet of 
the outer coat they sit perched upon their haunches, with a merry 
twinkle in the eye, but, not forgetting their exposed position, main- 
tain a prudent silence. 
Should some farmer’s boy chance to pass near by, not a Squirrel 
