228 the gray squirrel. 
therefore, a reward of two-pence a head was 
given from the public treasury for their de- 
struction. In one year only, about the middle 
of the last century, Pennsylvania alone paid 
no less a sum than eight thousand pounds on 
this account, which shows that in that year 
nearly a million of these animals must have 
been destroyed. 
The gray squirrel resides chiefly among 
trees, in the hollows of which it makes its 
nest with straw, moss, and other materials, 
feeding on acorns, fir-cones, maize, and va- 
rious kinds of fruit. It is said to collect ^ 
store of provisions for winter, which it de- 
posits in holes that it burrows at the foot of 
trees and other places. When, sitting on » 
bough, it perceives a man approaching, it in- 
stantly moves its tail backward and forward, 
and makes a noise with its teeth, to the great 
annoyance of the sportsman, who frequently 
loses his game in consequence of the alarm 
