THE SQUIRREL. 
391 
elude the teeth had not acquired sufficient density, 
or that the muscular power was not yet sufficiently 
developed, and that naturally their food while young 
consists of tender vegetable substance ? The jaws 
of a Squirrel do not separate beyond a half inch, 
and the lower incisors are used to scoop out the 
kernels of nuts, and such like fruits, or to scrape 
other food towards the mouth in minute morsels. 
He rejected portions of the skin covering the kernels 
of nuts. Some persons suppose Squirrels capable 
of discovering by the exterior of nuts whether the 
kernels are edible or not, but after repeated experi¬ 
ments I could not detect this faculty ; he opened 
both good and bad. His hearing, eyesight, and 
smell were extremely perfect, particularly the last, 
for by this means he discovered where I kept my 
supply of nuts, and I often caught him nibbling at 
the drawer, which was so situated that he had first 
to make several leaps upward, and then to suspend 
himself by his hind legs, a feat which disclosed to 
me an arrangement of his hinder extremities not a 
little extraordinary and w r onderful; for the toes of 
the hind legs are pointed directly forwards, and to 
hang by them the thigh-bone must have the power 
of revolving most completely on its axis. The under 
eyelid of the Squirrel has very limited motion, the 
upper one being almost entirely concerned in closing 
the organ. Besides his cries already mentioned, he 
once only delivered his peculiar call note. He had 
moreover a peculiar noise, proceeding as I found 
from his habit of rubbing his upper and under 
incisors against one another, to cleanse them or 
remove superfluous sharpness. During the confine¬ 
ment of young animals, we see the most inoffensive 
portions of their lives, and though the Squirrel on 
the whole may be characterized as a gentle and 
timid being, yet when this favorite of mine came 
to the enjoyment of his faculties and bodily en- 
