PICTURESQUE AND ACCURATE DESCRIPTION 145 
“It is amusing to watch it in its arboreal 
excursions, when you see it ascending the trunk 
and branches with surprising speed, running out 
even on slender twigs, always when in motion 
keeping its tail depressed, occasionally performing 
leaps from one branch to another, and when 
alarmed, scampering away at such a rate that you 
almost expect to see it miss its footing and fall down 
headlong. It feeds on nuts, beech-mast, acorns, 
buds, and the bark of young branches ^generally, 
while eating, sitting on its haunches, with its tail 
elevated, holding the object between its paws, and 
dexterously unshelling the kernel, from which it 
even removes the outer pellicle before munching it. 
It does not reside entirely on trees, but frequently 
resorts to the ground, where it moves with nearly 
equal agility, leaping like a rabbit. The female 
produces three or four young ones about mid¬ 
summer, which are deposited in a nest, formed of 
moss, fibrous roots, grass and leaves, curiously 
interwoven, and placed in a hole, or in the fork 
between two large branches. 
“ In autumn it lays up a store of provisions for 
winter, but usually in an irregular manner, deposit¬ 
ing nuts in different places in the ground, and in 
holes of trees. When the cold weather commences, 
it becomes less active, and often dozes for days in 
its retreat; but it does not become completely 
torpid; and I have often seen it abroad in the 
midst of a most severe snowstorm. If the weather 
be comparatively mild, it exhibits its usual activity, 
feeding on bark and twigs.” 
That there is picturesque and accurate descrip¬ 
tion here must be admitted on all hands, and the 
result of experiment leads us to confess that it is 
very difficult to shorten MacGillivray’s sketch 
without losing something of value. 
K 
