A DEPARTURE FOR EVERY NEED
Photograph by Howard Taylor Middleton
HEREDITARY ENEMIES: A CAT WATCHING A GRAY SQUIRREL
At one time the gray squirrel was so abundant as to make ruinous inroads on the corn and wheat crops of our pioneers. In Ohio, a hundred years ago, there was a law requiring each free white man to deliver 100 squirrel scalps every year or pay a penalty of $3. Today the gray squirrel needs legal protection to prevent its extermination.
Another member of this group, the flying-squirrel, has developed an extension of the skin uniting the front and hind legs, so it may glide freely from tree to tree. The bats have gone still further, and the skin uniting their lengthened front and hind limbs and long finger bones forms broad wings which lend them powers of flight scarcely equaled by those of birds.
The gophers, pocket-mice, chipmunks, and others are provided with little cheek pouches in the skin on each side of the mouth, in which they may carry food home to their store-rooms and other hiding places.
The hares have developed long legs for running on open plains, and the weasels have long, slender bodies and an exceeding quickness which enables them to follow and capture their elusive prey in its burrows and among crevices in the rocks.
The hairy coat of the mole is short and equal to the finest velvet, while that of the porcupine stands out in strong, sharp spines; the skin of the armadillo is practically hairless, but forms a bony armor covering its upper parts.
The front feet of squirrels and most other rodents are slender and used with deftness as hands in manipulating food, while those of the badger and skunk are heavily clawed and strongly muscled for the purpose of digging up their prey.
The tails of many species are varied in form to serve special purposes. The long-haired tails of tree-squirrels have a plume-like character, which adds much to the beauty of these attractive animals. The long tails of the kangaroo-rats and the jumping-mice serve as balances for their bodies during long leaps. The vertically flattened tail of the muskrat and the broad horizontally flattened tail of the beaver are useful as rudders. Perhaps the oddest of all is the naked prehensile tail of the opossum, which coils about branches or other support and thus is a safeguard against a possible fall, and even permits the animal to hang suspended by it alone.