Journal of Mammalogy 
Published Quarterly by the American Society of Mammalogists 
VoL. 1 FEBRUARY, 1920 No. 2 
MIGRATIONS OF THE GRAYSQUIRREL (SCIURUS 
CAROLINENSIS) 
By Ernest Thompson Seton 
One of the most interesting animal phenomena recorded by the early 
naturalists was the migration, or rather the emigration, of the gray- 
squirrel, 
A true migratory animal is one that makes a periodic change of 
range, which has a definite going, and a definite return. Thus the 
migration of birds, bats, and caribou are definite seasonal changes 
followed always by a return movement, but the migration of the gray- 
squirrel will I think be found in a different class. 
In all the early natural histories this squirrel is called “ migratory, 
and amazing accounts are given of its armies appearing to devastate 
the farms of whole regions, I have found no living man recently, who 
has seen one of these and can describe it, so must rest content with a 
compilation from two rambling accounts by the naturalists Kennicott, 
U. S. Pat. Off. Rept. for 1856 (1857) and Bachman (Quad. N. Amer., 
1846). The paragraphs from each are followed by the initials 
or 
The most interesting feature in the habits of this animal is the remarkable 
migration performed at times by large bodies of them. .... Immense 
numbers congregate in autumn, and move off together, continuing their progress 
in the same general direction, whatever it may be [nearly all recorded moved 
easterly, one only south, and one north], not even turning aside for large streams. 
. . . . They moved along rather leisurely, stopping to feed in the fields, and 
upon the abundant nuts and acorns of the forests. So far had they departed 
from their accustomed habits that they were seen on the prairie, four or five 
miles from any timber; but even there, as usual, they disliked to travel on the 
ground, and ran along the fences wherever it was possible. (K.) 
t 
53 
JOURNAL OF MAMMALOGY, VOL. I, NO. 2 
