The Squirrels in Capitol Park. 
Harrisburg, Pa., June 20. —Editor Forest and 
Stream: A common sight in the Capitol Park 
in Harrisburg, Pa., one that may be seen everjr 
day, is what might be called the ‘‘herding” of 
gray squirrels, pigeons and sparrows on the 
walk leading to the main capitol building at 
feeding time, about 1 o’clock in the afternoon. 
On a number of trees in the sixteen-acre park 
have been placed boxes which are supplied 
every day with different kinds of nuts—walnuts, 
shell-barks, butternuts and occasionally acorns, 
and the squirrels can at any time get something 
to eat, but at 1 o’clock, no matter where they 
may be, they gather at one spot along the side¬ 
walk and wait to be fed. 
Their greatest friend is former Judge Thomas 
S. Hargest, a prominent Harrisburg attorney, 
who every day is on hand at the appointed hour 
with pockets full of nuts, and it is an odd sight 
to see Mr. Hargest almost literally covered with 
squirrels. One on each hand, one on each shoul¬ 
der and a couple clinging to his coat tails, hang¬ 
ing head downward and munching a nut. It 
has been found by experience that peanuts 
are not good food for gray squirrels. The pea¬ 
nut is a tuber, and grows under ground, and a 
squirrel’s natural subsistence is nuts grown in 
the open air. When the squirrels first came to 
Capitol Park they were fed peanuts because the 
people did not know any better, and it was not 
long until their fur got thin and ragged and 
they became mangy and sickly. Judge Hargest 
feeds them pecans and filberts, with occasional 
English walnuts, and since they have discovered 
the new source of supply they scorn the plebian 
peanut and plant it as soon as they can find a 
convenient soft spot in the ground. They are 
fat and “sassy” and their fur is thick and glossy 
and their tails bushy and luxuriant. 
The sight of the squirrels feeding attracted 
the attention of the pigeons and sparrows, and 
naturally they flocked to the spot. They, too, 
are given their share, and it is a comical sight 
to see a cute little sparrow swoop down and 
pick up a kernel just under the bill of one of 
the big pigeons. These pigeons, generally so 
shy, have learned to eat from Judge Hargest’s 
hand, and he will sometimes have a couple of 
them perched on his hands and others anxiouslv 
and restlessly wa’ting their turn to get on the 
feeding perch. The aggregation of birds and 
animals at feedimr time is a great attraction for 
little folks, and hundreds of them go to the 
park to help in the feeding. 
When, several years ago, the squirrels grew 
thin and ragged, it was thought the breed had 
deteriorated, and James M. Shumaker, superin¬ 
tendent of public grounds and buildings, sent 
to \\ ichita. Kan., and imported about two dozen 
red fox squirrels, hoping to interbreed them 
with the common gray. The fox squirrels re¬ 
mained but a short time, and it was but a few 
months until they had all disappeared. What 
became of them never could be learned, but 
some of the wise ones said that they had re¬ 
turned to Kansas, and as proof cited the fact 
that a red fox squirrel was killed in the western 
part of the State where none had ever been seen 
before, and it was agreed that this was one of 
the Kansas squirrels on his way home. But the 
Kansas fox squirrels left their mark in Capitol 
Park, and to this day a squirrel may occasionally 
be seen with a streak of red down his back or 
along his sides. 
The nut that a gray squirrel does not want to 
eat he buries. He digs a small hole in the earth, 
places the nut in it and then carefully covers ; t 
over, patting down the earth with his paws. 
JUDGE HARGEST AND SOME OF HIS PETS. 
But before he buries the nut he nibbles from 
it the end which would sprout if planted, in 
order to prevent it from growing. I have seen 
a squirrel come down from his box nest on a 
tree in the park when there was over a foot of 
snow on the ground, nose around over the snow 
a bit and then start to digging furiously until 
his body was completely covered and only the 
tip of his tail stuck out. He was after a nut 
that had been planted, and when he again came 
to view he had the nut in his mouth. 
Here is another: Naturalists tell us that a 
gray squirrel will not eat flesh. When some 
of the park policemen told me that they had 
seen a gray squirrel kill and eat an English 
sparrow it amused me. An ordinary policeman 
to set his word up against that of great natural¬ 
ists ! But one day, near the old executive build- 
ing, I saw a squirrel swoop down on a sparrow, 
kill it with one bite through the head, and then 
calmly eat the bird, while quite a crowd watched 
him do the trick. 
In Capitol Park recently Judge Hargest 
handed a nut to a squirrel, which ran off a 
short distance and buried it. Out of curiosity 
the judge sought to ascertain how deep the nut 
was buried, and as he stooped down to scratch 
away the earth the squirrel made a sharp dash 
at him and knocked his hand away from the 
hole. Several days afterward a squirrel that 
had obtained possession of a nut and wished 
to bury it, climbed up the back of a bystander 
who was watching the feeding, pawed back his 
coat collar and deliberately dropped the nut 
down his neck, after which he replaced the coat 
collar and climbed down to earth again. Does 
any one wish to hoot at that story? 
The squirrels in Capitol Park are great acro¬ 
bats and perform all manner of feats, some of 
which you would not believe could be done un¬ 
less you saw them in the act. I saw one per¬ 
forming by turning somersaults through the air 
just for his own amusement. He was so glad 
he was living that he just had to show it in 
some way, and so he turned somersaults, and 
the most wonderful somersaults! Taking a 
short run he would leap through the air in a 
forward somersault and at the same time twist 
his body spirally and alight on his feet. I defy 
any human acrobat to do that. Then leaping 
from the ground he would turn a back somer¬ 
sault and at the same time do the spiral motion. 
Then he climbed into the branches of a small 
shrub and hung head downward and began to 
swing. When he had attained the proper 
momentum he launched his body through the 
air and how many somersaults he turned I will 
never tell you, for he went over and over so 
swiftly that I could not count the number. This 
was a case of the action being quicker than the 
eye. As wire walkers they have Blondin beaten. 
One of these park gray squirrels was observed 
on the trolley wire in Market Square, about 
three blocks from the park, performing all sorts 
of feats. He would run swiftly along the wire, 
then turn and run back downward, completely 
reversing his position. He followed this up— 
