[Sept. 19, 1908. 
452 
FOREST AND SI RF.AM 
the leg of the table on which the cage stood, 
insert their little paws between the bars, and 
abstract the bread and milk piece by piece. In 
order to frustrate them, I placed the saucer in 
the middle -of the cage. Their reply to this was 
to gnaw through a bar and boldly enter the 
cage. They grew so audacious that they used 
to walk into the cage while I was present in 
the room, but of course the least movement on 
my part -was the signal for them to dash away 
into the; verandah. On one occasion I was too 
quick for a squirrel who was feeding inside the 
grackle’s cage. I succeeded in placing my .hand 
in front of the gnawed-through bar before he 
could escape. He dashed about the cage like 
a thing .demented, and so alarmed the myna that 
I had to let him out. In half an hour he was 
again inside the cage. 
The little striped squirrel feeds largely on. the 
ground. . As every Anglo-Indian knows, it 
squats on its hind legs when eating and nibbles 
at the food which it holds in its fore paws. In 
this attitude its appearance is very rat-like, its 
tail not being much en evidence. It is careful 
never to wander far away from trees in which 
. . -- — '... . | 
it immediately takes refuge when alarmed. 
It does not always wait for the seeds, etc., 
upon which it feeds, to fall to the ground. It 
frequently devours these while still attached to 
the parent plant. Being very light it can move 
about on slender boughs. It is able to jump 
with ease from branch to branch, but in doing 
so causes a great commotion in the tree. Its 
arboreal movements seem very clumsy when com¬ 
pared with those of birds of the same size. 
Squirrels are sociably inclined creatures. 
When not engaged in rearing up their families 
they live in colonies in some decayed tree. At 
sunrise they issue forth from the cavity in which 
they have slept and bask for a time in the sun 
before separating to visit their several feeding 
grounds. At sunset they all return to their dor¬ 
mitory. Before retiring for the night they play 
hide-and-seek on the old tree, chasing each other 
in and out of the holes with whiqh it is riddled. 
A small colony of squirrels once dwelt in an 
old farash tree in the compound of the office of 
the accountant-general of the Punjab. . Unfor¬ 
tunately for the squirrels a pair of green parrots 
( Palceornis torquatus ) elected to nest in that 
tree and evicted the legitimate occupants. The 
disgusted squirrels had to. go, for the parrot’s 
beak is a weapon against which they can do 
nothing. 
Young squirrels are born blind and-naked and 
are then ugly creatures. Their skin shows the 
three black longitudinal stripes, the marks of 
Hanuman’s fingers, which give this creature , its 
popular name. The hair soon grows and trans¬ 
forms the squirrels. 
A baby Schirus makes a charming pet. The 
rapid movements are'a-never-failing source of 
amusement. It is feeding out of your hand, 
when it takes alarm at apparently nothing, and 
before you realize what has happened it has. dis¬ 
appeared. After a search it is found under the 
sofa, on the mantel piece or out, in the garden. 
I know of one who took refuge in its owner’s 
skirts, She had to retire to her room and .divest 
herself of sundry garments before she could 
recover it. . ... 
Once in trying to catch a baby squirrel that 
was about to leap off the table I seized the , end 
of its tail. To my astonishment the squirrel 
went off leaving the terminal inch of its caudal 
appendage in my hand, nor did the severance 
of its note of interrogation seem to cause it any 
pain. A squirrel's tail, like a lamp brush, is 
composed mainly of bristles. 
The First Touch of Autumn. 
Northwood, N. Y., Sept. 10.— Editor Forest 
and Stream: Autumn has touched the Adiron- 
dacks with its first gentle caress; the landscape, 
the flowers, the animals and the birds, in un¬ 
mistakable manner, reveal the beginning of a 
season whose charm excels that of spring with 
its budding glory and inexpressible freshness. 
The sandy pastures surrounding the great 
woods are aglow with . the goldenrod. The 
meadow sweet is on the wane, so that its white 
flowers are turning brown. 
« 
Brown is the distinct autumn color. In the 
beginning, the moss which is so prevalent on 
the waste lands surrounding the forest, turns 
from a floor of green to a carpet of brown. 
The brake, that aggressive fern, dies branch by 
branch and takes on a brown color. The skunk 
cabbage dies in the middle of August and its 
?Mried stem is brown. Then come the frosts. 
The soft maple is aglow with brilliant scarlet, 
the hard maple, too, is red, but of a deeper 
hue, and the birch leaves turn yellow. The 
beech tree preference is also yellow. But all, 
at last, discard their dashing colors for the 
sombre brown. If the change is not made while 
the leaves yet cling to the trees, it occurs 
within three or four days after they float and 
lazily sink to the ground. Often the beech leaf 
clings to its branch throughout the winter. 
The skunk cabbage has ceased its growth for 
the year. Its stem is dry and brown. Its 
leaves are shriveled up, like the maple tree leaf 
in November. While some of the asters are 
yet to bloom, the skunk cabbage is asleep for 
the year and prepared for the winter snows. 
The “wire grass” is another plant that has 
ceased its growth for the year. This is the 
prevailing grass of the sandy hills when left 
To grow what they will. “It is the poor man’s 
grass,” says an old settler. “A braid of it can’t 
be broken with the hands. Neither horse nor 
cow can eat it. It ain't even good for bedding, 
for it will slip from under the critter.” But to 
lend grace to the hillside, no cultivated grass 
can equal it. It flows and waves to every im¬ 
pulse of the breeze. The plain it renders a sea 
of swells. 
The dashing cardinal . flower, which grows 
solitary along the courses of streams, tells 11s 
that summer is past. It is a late summer flower 
and would mark the transition between .sum¬ 
mer and autumn, if the transition could be 
marked. The St. Johns wort is another flower 
which foretells the approach of autumn. It 
grows amid the wire grass on the sandy hills, 
and alongside of the brake and the white ever¬ 
lasting. The various sorts of asters are in 
bloom. They, perhaps are distinctive autumn 
flowers, The purple asters grow in moist 
places along the sandy roadways; they, appear 
in the trail where splashes of sunlight break 
through the leaves of the trees, and they catch 
the eye along the open creeks, and skidways. 
A white variety prefers the shade of the forest 
canopy, even growing in the cool shade of the 
balsam. The evergreen is now in bloom, as one 
may discover by examining closely the under¬ 
side of the evergreen leaves. 
But other signs besides the plants and flowers 
tell us that autumn is at hand. The partridge 
with her brood, each bird grown in size nearly 
equal to ‘herself, tell of good shooting. It 
seems that this year partridges are plentiful. 
A number of flocks have been seen, all of good 
size. They frequent the places where the 
blackberry patches touch the woods. These 
berries are now plentiful and the birds’ crops 
are so full that the berries stick in their- 
throats. 
After a long growth through the summer, 
the young squirrel is a big, lusty fellow. You 
recognize his youth because he is so reckless 
and bold. He has not yet learned that death 
lingers everywhere. The woodchuck is plump 
and round. Almost any time now, even while 
the grass is green and the weather warm, he 
will roll up in his burrow to remain until the 
first bare ground appears in early March. Most 
of all, the flocks of birds tell of the autumn. 
The great flocks of sw T allows that swurl and reel 
over the barns of the region tell with certainty 
that the migration of birds is about to begin. 
Before the month is out, you will arise some 
morning to see the sky clear of them. They 
have left for the year. Then there are the 
flocks of the mixed birds. The yellowhammer 
and the robin, the bluebird and the sparrows 
fraternize for weeks and then they, too, will 
disappear. E. A. Spears. 
Adirondack Beavers. 
Brandreth Lake, N. Y., Sept. 5 .—Editor Forest 
and Stream: The prospects for a good hunting 
season are favorable in this region (Herkimer 
county). The deer look well, and although un¬ 
usually wild, seem fairly numerous. 
Perhaps it will interest you to know that the 
beavers, or some of them at least, which were 
put out several years ago in the Adirondacks, 
have been working on this property. They 
have built a good sized dam on the inlet of the 
lake, and have cut down dozens of poplar trees. 
They are certainly an addition to the North 
Woods, and I only trust they will increase,. 
Paulina Brandreth. 
Baby Rabbits. 
Wymore, Neb., Sept. 7. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: I was pleased with the little sketch 
“Of Baby Rabbits,” by Ramon in your issue of 
Aug. 29, but am in search of further light. 
Will Ramon or some one else tell us how the 
baby rabbits are nourished the first few days 
of their life? That is, from birth until they get 
their eyes open? A. D. McCandless. 
Elk in Sweden. 
According to an exchange the number of elk 
killed last season in the various provinces of 
Sweden was as follows: Bulls, 1.397; cows, 
1,142; calves, 151; uncertain, 315. Total, 3,005. 
STIMULATION WITHOUT REACTION. 
After a day of enjoyable sport it is wise to 
choose a drink which helps to restore the vital 
powers rather than one which tends to deplete 
them, as in the case with many drinks. Bor¬ 
den’s Malted Milk is delicious, concentrated, 
nourishing, invaluable to the camper, made ready 
for use by adding water, hot or cold.— Adv. 
