SCIURUS CAROLINENSIS LEUCOTIS. 
127 
nuts that are hidden from sight. A Squirrel will often scratch and 
pmaw at a tight box or drawer that he has never seen before, if a 
few nuts happen to be in the bottom of it. His sense of smell is 
very acute, enabling him to detect the presence of a nut at some little 
distance ; hence, though he does not, of course, remember the exact 
spot where each one is buried under the leaves, he can, by moving 
carefully over the ground, discover a great many of them. 
In summer, and in winter when the temperature is above the freez- 
ing point, Gray Squirrels are out in greatest numbers early in the 
morning and in the latter part of the afternoon ; throughout the 
winter, except during thaws, they only appear for an hour or two in 
the warmest part of the day ; and in very cold or stormy weather, as 
previously stated, they do not venture abroad at all. 
This species is not nearly so plentiful along the outskirts of the 
Adirondacks as it was twelve or fifteen years ago, and it varies in 
abundance from year to year according to the condition of the nut 
crop. Beechnuts and butternuts are alone alluded to here because 
they are the prevailing nuts. All others are of such limited distribu- 
tion in the area under consideration that they are unworthy of 
mention. The nut yield is bountiful here, with great regularity, on 
alternate years. This has been the case, without a single exception, 
for the past twelve years at least. My notes show that the beechnut 
crop was good in the autumns of 1871, 1873, 1875, 1877, 1879, 1881, 
1883, — always on the odd years, — while on the alternate seasons it 
failed. And strange as it may at first sight appear, Squirrels 
are usually most numerous during the summer and early autumn of 
those years when there are few or no nuts. The reason is this : 
when the yield is large there is a noticeable influx of Squirrels from 
distant parts, and they, together with those that were here at the 
time, winter well, having an abundance of food, and breed here the 
following spring. During the summer and early autumn a multitude 
of young, now nearly full grown, mingle with the parent stock. 
Hence the species attains, at this time, its maximum in numbers* 
