ORANGE-BELLIED SQUIRREL. 
69 
into French folks, and the ga}^ bandanna that turbans the heads of the co- 
loured women, is always adjusted with good taste, and is their favourite 
head-dress. 
But the most interesting figures are the few straggling Choctaw and 
Chickasaw Indians, who bring a variety of game to the markets, and in 
their blankets, red flannel leggings, moccasins and bead finery, form a 
sort of dirty picturesque feature in the motley scene, and generally attract 
the artist’.s eye : many of these Indians have well formed legs and bodies, 
and their half-covered shoulders display a strength and symmetry indica- 
ting almost a perfect development of the manly form — their sinews 
and muscles being as large as is compatible with activity and grace. 
Whilst conversing with one of these remnants of a once numerous race, 
it was our good fortune to see for the first time the singular and beau- 
tiful little Orange-bellied Squirrel which the Indian hunter had brought 
with him along with other animals for sale, having procured it in the 
recesses of the forest on the borders of an extensive swamp. 
Rarely indeed does the Orange-bellied Squirrel leave its solitary haunts 
and quit the cypress or sweet-gum shades, except to feed upon pecan- 
nuts, berries, persimmons, or other delicacies growing in the uplands ; and 
it does not hoard up the small acorn from the swamp-oak until late in 
the autumn, knowing that the mild winters of Louisiana are seldom 
cold enough to prevent it from catching an unlucky beetle from time 
to time during the middle of the day, or interfere with searches lor 
food among the dry leaves and decaying vegetable substances in the 
wmods. Besides, early in the year the red-maple buds will afford a treat 
to which this little squirrel tm-ns with as much eagerness as the horse 
that has been kept all winter upon hay and corn, dashes into a fine field 
of grass in the month of May. 
The hole inhabited by the present species is generally in some tall 
tree growing in the swamp, and perhaps sixty or one hundred yards 
from the dry land, and the animal passes to it from tree to tree, or 
along some fallen monarch of the woods, over the shallow water, 
keeping his large eye bent upon the surrounding lands in fear of some 
enemy, and, in faith, he runs no little risk, for should the red-shoul- 
dered hawk, or the sharped-shinned, dart upon him, he is an easy prey; 
or, on a warm day, a snake, called the “ water moccasin,” curled up in 
his way, might swallow him, “ tail and all.” But good fun it must be 
to see the sportsman following in pursuit, splashing and floundei'ing 
through the water, sometimes half-leg deep, and at others only up to 
the ankles, but stumbling occasionally, and making the “ water fly 
