Davis: LocaL Notes ON THE GRAY SQUIRREL 131 
restful, got tired in about ten minutes, stood up on the post and 
waved his tail briskly, then ran off up the fence in the direction 
from whence he came. He was disappointed that I did not move 
away and let him run along the fence. 
Sometimes gray squirrels are very cautious, especially in the 
few remaining wild areas of the island, and seek safety in 
keeping out of sight as much as possible; or they will sit motionless 
and so hope not to be seen. On May 9, 1909, a gray squirrel 
was seen sitting motionless on a large limb near the main trunk 
of atree. He thought no doubt that he was unseen. We walked 
about the tree, the squirrel being about twenty-five feet away; 
also we made much noise, but he did not move; and we left him 
there undisturbed. | 
In spite of their agility in leaping from branch to branch, gray 
squirrels sometimes fall and injure themselves. I have seen one 
fall several feet before it secured a hold on some very small 
branches along which it ran. On Aug. 18, 1889, in the woods near 
Richmond Valley, I found a gray squirrel that was injured, could 
not move its hind legs, and lay flat on the ground. When it saw 
me coming it put its tail over its back trying to hide itself as much 
as possible. I gathered it some partridgeberries and acorns but 
it was unable to eat them though it tried to do so. I concluded 
that it had fallen out of one of the forest trees and thus injured 
itself. | , 
Several years ago an albino gray squirrel was often seen in the 
vicinity of Westerleigh, Staten Island, and I and others have seen 
the black variety of the gray squirrel in the forested part of the 
Botanical Garden, Bronx Park. 
The writer has had captive gray squirrels) on two occasions. 
The first pair were collected on Staten Island when they were very 
young. They were particularly fond of butter, which they would 
lick entirely off of the bread before eating any of the latter. 
Watermelon also was much prized as a food. Much dry corn is not 
good for squirrels in captivity, for overfeeding with it seemed to 
cause fits, from which one of my squirrels died. On occasions 
