Wild Animals of North America / Intimate Studies of Big and Little Creatures of the Mammal Kingdom

by Edward William Nelson

THE HOUSE MOUSE (Mus musculus)

(For illustration, [see page 531])

The familiar house mouse is of Old World origin and may be distinguished from most of our native mice by its proportionately slenderer body, long hairless tail, and the nearly uniform color on the upper and under parts of the body. Like the house rat, wandering an alien from its original home in Asia, and transported by ship and by inland commerce, it has gained permanent foothold and thrives in lands of the most diverse climatic conditions, except those of the frigid polar regions.

For centuries the house mouse has been parasitic about the habitations of man, and in many places in America has spread into the surrounding country, where it holds its own in the struggle for existence with many of our native species. It is probable that its ability to live in houses also infested by the fierce brown rat is due wholly to its agility, and to the small size, which enables it to retreat through crevices too small for the rat.

In buildings it hides its warm nests in obscure nooks and crannies, making them of scraps of wool, cotton, or other soft fibrous material, often cut from fabrics. Out in the fields, like any other hardy vagabond, it adapts itself to whatever cover may be available on the surface or in crevices and the deserted burrows of other mammals.

It has several litters of from four to nine young each year. The young are born blind, naked, and helpless, but are soon able to run about, often following the mother on her foraging expeditions. When a little more than half grown they usually scatter from the home nest and seek locations of their own.

Throughout most of its world-wide range the house mouse has the same general appearance, but in some localities the effect of changed environment is developing appreciable differences, which appear destined to result in marked geographic races. The representatives of these mice I caught in weedy fields on the coast of Chiapas, near the border of Guatemala, have an appreciable rusty shade on the back in place of the ordinary dull gray.

The success of both the house mouse and the house rat in establishing themselves so successfully in all parts of the world, in the face of the antagonism of mankind, affords marvelous examples of physical and mental adaptability not equaled elsewhere among mammals.

From early days the domestic mouse has been a familiar member of the household with people of all degree, and the housewife has had to match her wits against the cunning persistence of this small marauder in order to safeguard the family supplies of food and clothing.

Despite the antagonism excited by its destructive habits the mouse is so small and often so amusing in its ways that it has commonly been regarded with a half hostile, half friendly, interest. This is apparent by frequent references to it in proverbs, nursery rhymes, fables, and folklore, as well as in more serious literature.

Many cases of singing house mice have been recorded, their notes being a series of continuous musical chirps, trills, and warblings, rising and falling about an octave and slightly resembling the song of a canary. It has been claimed that this singing is due to an affection of the songster’s breathing organs, but this can scarcely account for its being uttered at definite times and places and ceasing at the volition of the performer.

In one instance the song had been heard in a china closet and an observer sat by the open door to locate the singer. After patient waiting “a mouse peered out from behind the plates, climbed up a little way on the brackets, and after looking around several times, began to sing.” This mouse continued to sing in the same place at intervals for several weeks and became accustomed to the presence of people during its performances; then it suddenly disappeared, probably a victim to one of the dangers which constantly beset its kind.

THE MOUNTAIN-BEAVER (Aplodontia rufa phaea and its relatives)

(For illustration, [see page 534])

The first adventurous fur traders who penetrated the Oregon wilds found the Chinook Indians provided with robes made of skins of the mountain-beaver. From that time until recently but little accurate information has been available concerning the habits of this curious animal. Locally it is known by several other names, including “Sewellel,” “mountain boomer,” “boomer,” and, in the Olympic mountains, “chehalis.”

The genus of mountain-beavers contains only a single species with several subspecies, all having a close superficial likeness in size and form to a tailless muskrat, except for their coarse, harsh fur. It is an exclusively North American type and, aside from a remote relationship to the squirrel family, has no kin among living mammals. It appears to be a sole survivor from some former age. As with the pocket gophers, its mode of life has developed powerful muscles about the head, front legs, and forepart of the body.

The distribution of the mountain-beaver in Tertiary times extended through the Great Basin to North Dakota, but at present is closely restricted to the humid region between the crests of the Cascades and the Sierra Nevada and the Pacific coast, and from the lower Fraser River, British Columbia, south to the latitude of San Francisco Bay, California.

WHITE-FOOTED MOUSE (Adult and Young)

Peromyscus leucopus

BEACH MOUSE

Peromyscus polionotus niveiventris

Within this superbly forested region this animal delights in locations that are cool and oozing with water, where, under the dense shade of an almost tropical undergrowth of shrubs, ferns, and other herbage, it constructs numberless tunnels and trails. These are sometimes in flats, but much more often along canyons and mountain slopes, among willow, alder, aspen, or other thickets, or even in the heavy coniferous forest.

BIG-EARED ROCK MOUSE

Peromyscus truei

BROWN RAT
Rattus norvegicus HOUSE MOUSE
Mus musculus

Veritable colonies inhabit certain areas and the ground is honeycombed with burrows six to eight inches in diameter and covered with a network of surface trails. The irregular branching tunnels are sometimes two or three hundred feet in length and have at frequent intervals side passages through which the earth mined in extending the burrow may be ejected in small dumps. The tunnels appear in a large measure built for the safety of the owner in traveling, since they repeatedly come to the surface at the end of a log, where an open, neatly kept trail extends under its shelter the entire length, the tunnel being resumed at the far end of the log.

All surface runways connecting tunnel entrances or leading through the thick surface vegetation are well kept and free of all obstructions. The ground in these haunts is commonly so saturated with water that the tunnels form drainage channels down which run little streams.

Nest chambers discovered by T. H. Scheffer in the Olympic Mountains were located in tunnels two feet underground. They were oval in form and one measured eighteen inches in horizontal diameter and seventeen in height. Here three storage chambers opened directly from the nest chamber, one of which contained two quarts or more of sections of fern roots, which had been kept so long they were spoiled, and another was partly filled with freshly cut leaves of nettles and twigs of cedar and fir. At the far end an opening dropped six inches into a small drainage basin partly filled with water, out of which led two passages. The roofs of the chambers were lined with a thin layer of clay, which appeared to have been packed in place by the owner.

In the upper and drier part of the nest, which was made of dried fronds of ferns, grasses, and small twigs, were found three young less than a week old, with coats of fine fur, but with eyes still closed. Like burrowing animals generally, the mountain-beaver is cleanly in its housekeeping, and offal, loose dirt, and debris of all kinds are pushed out by the forefeet and head to the dumps at the less-used openings.

In winter much of the mountain-beaver country is buried under several feet of snow, but this does not stop the activities of this hardy animal. Between the entrances to its burrows and out along the surface of the ground it tunnels through the snow in various directions in search of forage.

At this time it cuts twigs from bushes and gnaws the bark from the trunks and roots of the smaller trees, sometimes completely girdling and killing trees more than two feet in diameter. Its underground tunnels are also extended at this season, the soils being pushed up in dumps under the snow and parts of the snow tunnels are packed full of it for some distance, so that when the snow disappears the curious earth-forms remain like those of the pocket gopher.

The mountain-beaver lives a monotonous existence and correspondingly lacks the mental vivacity of many other species which have a greater freedom of movement. When one is caught it shows little fear, but struggles to escape, growling, clattering its teeth, and biting viciously at anything within reach. Its desire for food, however, appears to control its emotions, and very soon after being captured it will eat any green vegetation offered, as unconcernedly as though free.

That the mountain-beaver possesses social instincts is evident, as a pair is often found occupying one set of tunnels, and in many favorable places a number will have their burrows closely grouped and connected with a network of communicating surface trails.

Although mainly nocturnal, the animals are active early in the morning and late in the afternoon, as well as throughout dark days. Those kept in captivity would show periods of restless activity at night and have alternating periods of sleep and wakefulness during the day. Sometimes they would sleep coiled with the head turned under the body and again flat on their backs. During these periods their sleep is often so profound that they may be handled without being awakened.

One captive animal is reported to have uttered a curious quavering note resembling that of a screech-owl. They have a strong musky odor, which is very evident when they are first caught, and which is frequently apparent about the burrows.

Careful and repeated efforts to keep these animals in captivity under as near normal conditions as possible in regard to food and surroundings in the vicinity of where they were captured have, up to the present time, resulted in failure. In every case the animals failed to thrive and soon died.

The mating occurs about the middle of March, and a month later litters of two or three young are born. The young grow slowly, not attaining full size for a year or more, and do not breed until the second year, but they leave the shelter of the home nest and scatter to occupy burrows of their own at the end of the first two or three months.

The mountain-beaver feeds upon nearly all small vegetation growing in its haunts, including, in addition to small herbage, shrubs, the bark of trees and bushes, ferns, and fern roots. More than thirty species of native plants have been found among its “hay” piles at the mouths of burrows. Since its country has become increasingly occupied by farmers, it has developed a fondness for cultivated crops that, in many places, is rendering it a pest. It appears to have a special taste for cabbage, potato, and onion tops, and other garden produce.

When gathering its food it sits up squirrel-like and grasps the plant stem with one hand, a long projecting tubercle on the “heel” of the hand opposing the fingers like a thumb and giving a good grasp, so that it can pull plants down to be bitten off with the sharp front teeth. Sometimes it climbs up a few feet into a bush or small branching tree after succulent shoots.

The mountain-beaver has the interesting habit of gathering stores of green plant food much like that of the cony on the mountain tops, but appears to be more methodical in its ways, gathering the stems of such plants as grasses, ferns, and lupins, as well as twigs of various bushes and carrying them in bundles as large as can be held in the mouth, the butts of the stems neatly laid together. These little bundles of “hay” are placed side by side about the entrances of the burrows, with the butts all parallel on sticks or other support to keep them as clear as possible from the ground. They are left thus for a day or more to cure before being carried into the subterranean store-rooms.

Chief among the four-footed enemies of the mountain-beaver are the fisher and bobcat, and an eagle has been seen keeping close watch at the entrance of their burrows.

THE COMMON WOODCHUCK, OR AMERICAN MARMOT (Marmota monax and its relatives)

(For illustration, [see page 534])

The woodchuck or “groundhog” is a typical marmot, with coarse hair, heavy body, short neck, short, bushy tail, powerful legs, and feet armed with strong claws for digging. When fully grown it averages about ten pounds in weight. Its usual color is a grizzled brown, but in some districts black, or melanistic, individuals are not uncommon.

Marmots are common to Europe, Asia, and North America. The group contains many species and geographic races varying in size and color. The Alpine marmot of Europe is probably the most familiar of the Old World species and the woodchuck the best known in America.

North America contains several species of marmots, their joint territory extending from coast to coast over the northern parts of the continent and from southern Labrador, the southern shores of Hudson Bay and Great Slave Lake, and central Alaska southward to northern Alabama, and along the high mountains to New Mexico and the southern Sierra Nevada of California. The common woodchuck is well known to every dweller in the countryside of the Eastern States and Canada, where it occurs from sea-level to near the tops of the highest mountains, at altitudes of over 4,000 feet.

It is a familiar habitant of fields and grassy hillsides, especially where bordering woodland offers safe retreat. In such places it digs burrows under stone walls, rocks, ledges, old stumps, or even out in the open grass-grown fields. It commonly lives in the midst of the forest, where its dens are located in a variety of situations. The burrows are marked by little mounds of earth at the entrances and ordinarily contain from twenty to forty feet of branching galleries, one or more of which end in a rounded chamber about a foot in diameter, well lined with dry grass and leaves.

Within these warm nests the females bring forth from three to nine blind and helpless young about the last of April or early in May. A few weeks later the young appear about the entrance of the burrows sunning themselves and playing with one another, but usually ready to disappear at the first alarm. At times, however, they are surprisingly stupid and may be captured with ease. Woodchucks have practically no economic value. Their flesh, while occasionally eaten, is little esteemed, and their coarsely haired pelts are worthless as fur.

The woodchuck is a sluggish and stupid animal, which does not ordinarily go far from its burrow, but at certain seasons, especially in spring, wanders widely, as though looking over its territory before locating for the summer. It has much curiosity and often sits upright on its hind feet to look about, remaining for a long time as motionless as a statue. When one is driven into its burrow, if a person approaches quietly and whistles, it will often raise its head in the entrance and look about to satisfy its curiosity.

Its only note is a short shrill whistle, which it utters explosively at frequent intervals when much alarmed. At such times it also chatters its teeth with a rattling sound as owls sometimes clatter their beaks.

Owing to their mainly diurnal habits and persistence in living in and about the borders of fields, woodchucks are among the most widely known of our smaller mammals, and have long been the favorite game of the country boy and his dog. When cornered they will fight savagely and with their strong incisors inflict severe wounds.

They feed on grasses, clover, and other succulent plants, including various cultivated crops, especially vegetables in field and garden, where they sometimes do much damage. The holes and earth mounds they make in fields, in addition to feeding on and trampling down grasses or grain, excite a strong feeling against them, and farmers everywhere look upon them as a nuisance. In New Hampshire so great was the prejudice against them that in 1883 a law was passed placing a bounty of ten cents each on them: “Provided, That no bounty shall be paid for any woodchuck killed on Sunday.”

Unlike many rodents, the woodchucks do not lay up stores of food for winter. As summer draws to an end they feed heavily and become excessively fat. On the approach of cold weather they become more and more sluggish, appearing above ground with decreasing frequency until from the end of September to the first of November, according to locality, they retire to their burrows and begin the long hibernating sleep which continues until the approach of spring.

MOUNTAIN-BEAVER

Aplodontia rufa phaea

COMMON WOODCHUCK, or AMERICAN MARMOT

Marmota monax

HOARY MARMOT, or WHISTLER

Marmota caligata

Some time between February and April, according to latitude, they come forth to resume their seasonal activities. In the northern parts of their range they usually come out several weeks before the snow disappears and may be tracked in it as they wander about searching for food or a new location.

The prominence of the groundhog as a popular figure in the country lore of the Eastern States is shown by his having been given a place with the Saints on the calendar, February 2 being widely known as “Groundhog Day.” It is claimed that on this date the groundhog wakes from his long winter sleep and appears at the mouth of his burrow to look about and survey the weather. If the sun shines so that he can see his shadow, bad weather is indicated and he retires to resume his sleep for another six weeks. Otherwise, the winter is broken and mild weather is predicted. Even on the outskirts of Washington some of the countrymen still appraise the character of the coming spring by the weather on “Groundhog Day.”

THE HOARY MARMOT, OR WHISTLER (Marmota caligata and its relatives)

(For illustration, [see page 535])

The whistler is the largest and handsomest of the American marmots. It is similar in proportions to the common woodchuck, but averages nearly twice its weight. Its fur, far thicker and of a better quality, might have a value in the fur trade if enough of the skins were available. As it is, the skins are used only for robes and sometimes for clothing by the Indians.

The distribution of this characteristic animal of the northern Rocky Mountains and outlying ranges extends from the Endicott Mountains, fronting the Arctic coast of Alaska, and the peninsula of Alaska, southeasterly to the Bitterroot Mountains of Idaho, Mount Rainier, the Olympics of Washington, and Vancouver Island. In the North its range extends from above timber-line down over hare slopes and through glacial valleys to the sea-level along the southern coast of Alaska. To the southward it is limited wholly to the higher elevations, usually above timber-line.

Owing to variations in climatic conditions and to isolation in different parts of its range, several geographic races of the whistler have been developed. In the mountains to the southward of its range other marmots occur as far as New Mexico and California.

When the French-Canadian voyageurs on their fur-trading expeditions first visited the Rocky Mountains they encountered the hoary marmots and applied to them the name “siffleur,” or whistler, which they had already given the common woodchuck of eastern Canada. The shrill note of the hoary marmot, under favorable circumstances, may be heard more than a mile and justifies the restriction of the name whistler to it.

The whistler lives in such remote and unfrequented districts that little is known of its life history. It is diurnal in habits and loves the free open spaces of the high mountain ridges. There its loud, oft-repeated call note, striking colors, together with its habit of running about on the snowbanks, render it unusually conspicuous.

High in the mountains it usually inhabits rock slides, the tumbled rock masses of glacial moraines, or rocky points, but sometimes takes up its abode on open earth slopes or in the bottoms of little glacial valleys. Ordinarily the dens are hidden in the rock slides and broken-down ledges, or burrows are dug under the shelter of large boulders and even in open ground away from any rocky shelter.

During the sunny days of summer the whistler regularly frequents the top of some conspicuous boulder or projecting rocky point, from which it commands a sweeping view of all its surroundings. Its sight and hearing are extraordinarily keen, and when perched on its lookout it is difficult to stalk. When one has its burrow located in an open place it often sits upright on its haunches to look watchfully about, and at the first alarm disappears into its den. This watchfulness is necessary, for even in the remote alpine highlands it occupies, the whistler is beset by enemies. The most formidable of these are the great brown and grizzly bears of the North, which dig it from its burrow. In addition prowling wolves, Canada lynxes, wolverines, and eagles take occasional toll from its numbers.

Toward the end of summer, when the high alpine slopes are thickly grown with small flowering herbage, the whistler feeds heavily on many of the plants and, like the woodchuck at this season, becomes excessively fat. Before the arrival of winter it retires to the shelter of its den and begins the long hibernating sleep which may last six months or more. In spring, before the snowy mantle is gone from the mountains, it is out, ready to welcome the approaching summer. A few weeks later the three or four young are born. They remain with the mother throughout the season and during their first winter may hibernate in the home den.

The unspoiled wilderness of remote northern mountain slopes and ridges where the whistler lives is also the home of the mountain sheep, caribou, and huge northern bears. As the hardy sportsmen roam these inspiring heights in search of game their attention is constantly attracted to the marmots, whose presence and shrill call notes lend a pleasing touch of life to many an otherwise harsh and forbidding scene.

THE PRAIRIE-DOG (Cynomys ludovicianus and its relatives)

(For illustration, [see page 538])

Prairie-dogs are not “dogs,” but typical rodents, first cousins to the ground squirrels, or spermophiles. As a rule, they may be distinguished from the ground squirrels by their larger size, proportionately shorter and heavier bodies, and shorter tails. In length they vary from fourteen to over seventeen inches, and in weight from one and one-half to more than three pounds.

These rodents are limited to the interior of North America and form a small group of five species and several geographic races. Although closely alike in general form and habits, the species are divided into two sets: one, the most widely distributed and best known, having the tails tipped with black, and the other having the tails tipped with white.

On the treeless western plains and valleys from North Dakota and Montana to Texas and thence west across the Rocky Mountains to Utah and Arizona, they are one of the most numerous and characteristic animals. Southward they range into northwestern Chihuahua and one species occupies an isolated area on the Mexican table-land in southern Coahuila and northern San Luis Potosi, Mexico. Their vertical range varies from about 2,000 feet on the plains to above 10,000 feet in the mountainous parts of Colorado and Arizona.

Owing to their diurnal habits, their exceeding abundance over vast areas, and their interesting mode of living in colonies, prairie-dogs have always attracted the attention of travelers and have become one of the most widely known of our smaller mammals. All who have lived in the West, or who have merely traversed the Great Plains on the transcontinental railroads, have had their interest excited by these plump little animals sitting bolt upright by the mounds which mark the entrances to their burrows, or scampering panicstricken for shelter as the train roars through their “towns.”

So strong is the gregarious instinct in prairie-dogs that they customarily make their burrows within short distances of each other, varying from a few yards to a few rods apart. The inhabitants of these communities, or “towns,” as they have often been termed, vary in number from a few individuals to millions. In western Texas one continuous colony is about 250 miles long and 100 miles wide. In the entire State of Texas 90,000 square miles are occupied by prairie-dogs, and the number of these animals within this area runs into the hundreds of millions. The extent to which they occupy parts of their territory is well illustrated by one situation in a mountain valley, containing about a square mile, in eastern Arizona, which by actual count contained 7,200 of their burrows.

The burrows, from four to five inches in diameter, are usually located on flat or gently sloping ground. They descend abruptly from eight to sixteen feet, then turn at a sharp angle and extend ten to twenty-five feet in a horizontal or slightly upward course. The tunnel at the end of the steep descending shaft is always more or less irregular in course, and branches in various directions, the branches often ending, in a rounded nest or storage chamber, but sometimes forming a loop back to the main passageway. Not infrequently two entrances some distance apart lead to these deep workings. A little niche is ingeniously dug on one side of the steep entrance shaft, four to six feet below the surface, to which on the approach of danger the owner retires to listen and determine whether it may or may not be necessary to seek safety in the depth of the den. It is from these vantage points that the resentful voices of the habitants come to an intruder in a prairie-dog “town” as he passes.

The black-tailed prairie-dog, which is so numerous on the Great Plains, surrounds the entrance to its burrow with a crater-shaped pyramid of soil varying from a few inches to nearly two feet in height and serving perfectly as a dike to keep out the water. The owners keep the funnel-shaped inner slopes of the rims about the entrances in good condition by setting briskly to work to reshape them at the end of a rain-storm, digging and pushing the earth in place with their feet and molding it into a more compact mass by pressing it in with their blunt noses.

The white-tailed prairie-dogs pile the dirt from their excavations out on one side of the entrance, as in the case of most other burrowing animals. Sometimes the dirt in these piles amounts to from ten to twenty bushels, thus indicating extended underground workings.

The vivacity and hearty enjoyment of life by the occupants of a prairie-dog “town” is most entertaining to an observer. With the first peep of the sun above the horizon they are out on the mounds at the entrances of their burrows, first sitting erect on their hind feet and looking sharply about for any prowling enemy. If all is well they begin to run about from one hole to another, as though to pass the compliments of the day, and scatter through the adjacent grassy feeding ground.

The favorite food of prairie-dogs consists of the stems and roots of gramma grass and other richly nutritious forage plants. In addition they eat any native fruits, such as that of the pear-leaved cactus (Opuntia) and are extremely destructive to grain, alfalfa, and other cultivated crops. In addition to ordinary vegetation, they eat grasshoppers and are fond of flesh, sometimes being caught far from their homes in traps set for carnivores. They keep the grass and other vegetation cut down or entirely dug out over much of the “town” and especially in a circle about each entrance mound, apparently for the purpose of obtaining a clear view as a safeguard against the approach of any of their many four-footed enemies. This habit is exceedingly injurious to the cattle ranges and often results in much erosion of the fertile surface soil.

PRAIRIE-DOG

Cynomys ludovicianius

STRIPED GROUND SQUIRREL

Citellus tridecemlineatus

The vast numbers of prairie-dogs over so large a part of the grazing areas of the West take a heavy toll from the forage and other crops. As a consequence a campaign of destruction is being waged against them as the country becomes more and more settled, and they will eventually disappear from much of their present range. However detrimental they may be from an economic point of view, they are among our most interesting species, and when taken young their playful disposition and intelligence render them most entertaining captives.

CALIFORNIA GROUND SQUIRREL

Citellus beecheyi

ANTELOPE CHIPMUNK

Ammospermophilus leucurus

Owing to the constant danger to which they are subject from coyotes, foxes, bobcats, badgers, and black-footed ferrets, in addition to eagles and other birds of prey, prairie-dogs are constantly on the alert. At any suspicious occurrence the first to observe it runs to his entrance mound, if the danger is not pressing, but otherwise to the nearest mound, where he sits up at his full height, “barking” and vibrating his tail, ready, if necessary, to disappear instantly. At the same time the “town” is alive with scurrying figures of the habitants rushing panic-stricken for their homes, and the air is filled with a chorus of their little barking cries. When all have been frightened to cover barking continues in the burrows, but an hour or more may pass before a “dog” will reappear.

I once stalked a solitary antelope by creeping flat on the ground through a prairie-dog “town.” As I drew near the first burrows, the “dogs” all rushed to their mounds, sitting there and barking at the queer and unknown animal thus invading their precincts. The strange sight excited as much curiosity among them as alarm. As I approached one mound after another the owners would become almost hysterical in their excitement and would sit first on all fours and then stand up at full height on their hind feet, the tail all the time vibrating as though worked by some mechanism, while the barking continued at the intruder as rapidly and explosively as possible. When I came within six or eight feet the “dog” would dive down his hole, sputtering barks from the depths as he went, but often would pop up again to take another look before finally disappearing. In this way I passed ten or a dozen mounds while the dozens of “dogs” off my line of progress worked themselves into a frenzy of curiosity and protest. When the stalk was finished I passed back through the “town” and my upright figure was promptly recognized by the habitants as that of an enemy and every one disappeared before I was within fifty yards of the first mound.

The common note of the black-tailed prairie-dogs is a squeaking “bark,” much like that produced by squeezing a toy dog; in addition, there is a rapid chattering note, often given as the “dogs” vanish down the hole. The white-tailed species have a shriller, more chirping note. In both species the odd vibrating motion of the tail, held stiffly close to the back, is characteristic.

Prairie-dogs hibernate in severe weather, those living in high, snow-covered mountains or in the far north sometimes sleeping through five or six months. In many places their hibernation is irregular, and near the southern border of their range is limited to a few inclement days now and then. In Wyoming they come out the last of March or early in April, sometimes when there is a foot or two of snow on the ground and the temperature ranges far below zero. Under such conditions they run about over the snow during the middle of the day, feeding on projecting tips of vegetation or digging to the ground.

Beginning near the southern border of their range and proceeding north, the single litter of the season, containing from four to six young, are born in March, April, or May, and a month later, when scarcely larger than chipmunks, may be seen playing about the entrance mound. When danger appears the mother sends the young helter-skelter for the refuge of the burrow, and should any be slow about going in she rushes at them, driving them to cover with shrill barks of alarm. When about half-grown the young scatter and prepare burrows of their own. Sometimes as many as six to nine of these animals may be found in a single burrow, in which, no doubt, they have taken refuge, or it may be a reunion of the season’s family.

On warm sunny days, especially at a time when nights are frosty, these fat little animals will often lie flat on the bare ground about their mounds, with legs outstretched, basking in the grateful rays. As their colonies expand by the rapid increase of their numbers, many individuals wander far in search of new locations. On the mountain plateaus of northern Arizona I know of instances where they have traversed several miles of pine and fir forest to locate in an isolated mountain park, and new colonies were established as far as six miles from their nearest neighbors.

The flesh of prairie-dogs is not unpalatable, and Navajo and Pueblo Indians are extremely fond of it. The Indians take advantage of heavy rains and turn the temporary rush of water down the holes to drown out the “dogs,” and thus capture many of them.

It is inevitable that many popular misconceptions should grow up about such numerous and interesting animals as the prairie-dogs. In the West many people believe that the burrows go down to water. In reality, like many other rodents, these animals have acquired the ability by chemical action in the stomach to transform the starchy food into water. I have seen dog towns located on a few feet of soil resting on a waterless lava bed miles in extent and more than 100 feet thick, as shown by canyons cut through it, thus proving the impossibility of the prairie-dog-well legend.

Another popular belief is that the rattlesnakes and burrowing owls living in prairie-dog towns unite as a kind of happy family in the burrows of the dogs. The truth is that the owls live and breed in deserted dog holes, while the rattlesnakes visit the occupied holes to feed on the unfortunate occupants.

THE STRIPED GROUND SQUIRREL (Citellus tridecemlineatus and its subspecies)

(For illustration, [see page 538])

Small size and a series of thirteen narrow, well-defined stripes, or lines, marking the upperparts of the striped ground squirrel serve to distinguish it from all its relatives. Its total length is about eleven inches and its form is nearly as slender as that of the weasel. Its brightly colored markings blend so well with the brown earth and plant stems in its haunts that when quiet it is difficult to distinguish. This protective coloration is of vital service to a small animal sought by all the diurnal birds of prey, as well as by coyotes, foxes, bobcats, badgers, skunks, weasels, and snakes.

The striped ground squirrel, also known as the “gopher” or “striped gopher,” is restricted to middle North America, where it is distributed from southern Michigan and northern Indiana west to Utah, and from about latitude 55 degrees in northern Alberta south nearly to the Gulf coast of Texas. It ranges from near sea level in Texas up nearly to 10,000 feet in Colorado. Within these limits the varying climatic conditions have modified it into several geographic races, all having a close general resemblance.

Like most members of the squirrel family, the striped ground squirrels are diurnal in habits and well known wherever they occur. I first learned the ways of these odd little mammals as a boy on the prairies outside the city of Chicago, and later observed them in a high mountain valley in Arizona. In both regions they had the same habits. By preference they occupy grassy prairies, old fields, and similar situations. In many areas they are serious pests, owing to their abundance and their destructiveness to grain crops, but where the land is generally cultivated, the sheltering vegetation and their shallow burrows are destroyed by the plow, thus causing a decrease in their numbers.

The lives of the striped ground squirrels are so beset with peril that they always move abroad with watchful hesitation, pausing to listen, retreating toward their burrows at the slightest suspicious sound or movement, or rising bolt upright on their hind feet and remaining motionless as a small statue until satisfied that there is nothing to fear. They call to one another with a chirping note as well as with a shrill trilling whistle, and when alarmed by the presence of some enemy their warning call notes are heard on all sides as the alarm is passed, and all are on the alert to disappear down their burrows at the slightest suspicious movement.

When they have vanished their trilling notes are often heard from the depths of their burrows; but curiosity is one of their strongest traits, and if no disturbance follows one will almost immediately pop up its head to see the cause of the alarm. Boys, taking advantage of this habit, place an open slipping noose at the end of a long string around the entrance of the burrow, and, waiting developments, lie quietly a few yards to one side. The ensuing silence is too much for the ground squirrel to endure and soon its head appears above ground, the boy pulls the string, and the victim is dragged forth with the noose about its neck.

The entrance to the burrow of these ground squirrels is about two inches in diameter. It is usually located in the midst of grass or weedy growths, and has little or no fresh earth about it. The burrow descends for several inches almost vertically and then turns almost horizontally in a sinuous and erratic course, with numerous branches and side passages leading up to the surface. Most of these side entrances are kept plugged with soft earth. Opening off the main tunnel is a large nest chamber filled with fine dry grasses and other soft vegetable matter, and also one or more large storage chambers in which the owner lays up his garnered supplies of grain or other seeds for use during inclement weather.

These squirrels hibernate throughout their range, entering their long sleep in an excessively fat condition the last of September or in October. In the North they remain in a torpid state for six months or more.

Soon after they appear in spring they mate and the single litter of the year, containing from five to thirteen young, is born the last of May or early in June. The young are in an extremely undeveloped state at birth, being blind, hairless, and with the ears scarcely showing. They develop slowly and remain with the mother until toward fall, when, nearly grown, they scatter to care for themselves.

The striped ground squirrels are among the most carnivorous of rodents. Although they devote much time to gathering grain, seeds of various kinds, and even acorns and other nuts, which may be eaten on the spot or carried in their cheek pouches to their underground storage rooms, in addition they are known to eat insects and flesh whenever occasion offers. In fact, during seasons when such insect food as grasshoppers, caterpillars, and grubs is plentiful, these ground squirrels frequently feed mainly upon it. They are known to kill and devour mice and young birds, and when confined in a cage will sometimes kill and partly devour their own kind. When caught they fight fiercely, biting and struggling to escape. In captivity they show little of the gentleness and intelligence which are such pleasing characteristics of chipmunks and true squirrels.

THE CALIFORNIA GROUND SQUIRREL (Citellus beecheyi and its relatives)

(For illustration, [see page 539])

Owing to its habits, the California ground squirrel is known locally as the digger-, rock-, or ground-squirrel. Its prominent ears, bushy tail, color, and form give it the general appearance of a heavy-bodied gray tree squirrel, but in reality it is a true, spermophile and close kin to the marmots.

GOLDEN CHIPMUNK

Callospermophilus lateralis chrysodeirus

EASTERN CHIPMUNK

Tamias striatus

Spermophiles are nearly circumpolar in distribution, ranging through northern lands from central Europe across Bering Strait to the Great Lakes in North America. Many species exist in North America, varying greatly in form, size, and color. They occur mainly in the western part of the continent from the Arctic coast of Alaska to the southern end of the Mexican table-land. Some species are represented by enormous numbers and do great injury to cultivated crops. Among the larger and best known of the injurious species, the California ground squirrel, with its several geographic races, occupies most of the Pacific coast region from Oregon to Lower California. It has a broad vertical distribution, extending from the seashore to about 10,000 feet altitude on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada in California, and thrives under contrasting climatic conditions, as the humid northwest coast region and the most arid deserts of Lower California.

OREGON CHIPMUNK

Eutamias townsendi

PAINTED CHIPMUNK

Eutamias minimus pictus

In California, where they are generally distributed and extremely numerous over great areas, these ground squirrels are most at home among the wild oats and scattered live oaks on the open slopes of the rocky foothills and thence up through the dense chaparral, scrub oaks, piñon pines, and junipers. Above this they populate many beautiful little valleys in colonies, as well as parts of the splendid open forests of pine and fir. Below they spread out from the foothills among the ranches in the great valleys. Wherever they occur they take heavy toll from the native forage plants, and in cultivated areas their devastations of crops place these spermophiles among the most serious of mammal pests.

They are omnivorous, eating insects and flesh on occasion, but feeding mainly on seeds, fruits, and many kinds of plants. The native vegetation in their haunts contains a wonderful variety of food plants, from humble weeds in the valleys to the lordly pines of the Sierra, but most attractive to these rodents are the rich food-bearers brought by the cultivators of the soil. The squirrels gather in great numbers about farms, and in feeding upon alfalfa, wheat, and other grains, grapes, peaches, apricots, almonds, prunes, pomegranates, and a variety of other crops, cause an annual loss to the farmers of California probably exceeding $20,000,000. So serious are their depredations that great sums have been spent in attempts to destroy them with poison. The Kern County Land Company, with vast holdings in the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley, in 1911 spent more than $40,000 for this purpose. This company estimated that the ground squirrels destroyed 20 per cent of the grain crop in great areas, and that twenty of them would destroy enough forage to support a cow through the year.

Ground squirrels by choice locate their burrows among slide rock, in crevices among cliffs, under boulders and roots of trees, in ditch or dry creek banks, or under stone walls, fences, or building, but in the parks of the high Sierra, as in the foothills and lowland valleys, they dig holes out in the open with conspicuous mounds at the entrances much like those of prairie-dogs.

Well-worn trails lead from one of their burrows to another and away to a distance through the wild oats in the foothills, or in the grain and forage crops of the valleys, and along these the animals travel when foraging or paying social visits. Whenever a large rock, stump, or other prominent object is convenient, they spend hours on the top sunning themselves and keeping a sharp lookout over their surroundings. From these lookout points when they suspect danger they utter a short, shrill, whistling note which may be heard at a long distance and which sends all their neighbors scurrying for shelter. They also have a lower chattering note, uttered about the burrow when resenting an intrusion or when otherwise displeased.

Ground squirrels are agile climbers on cliffs and among rocks as well as in fruit trees, live oaks, and other low trees, but I have never seen them far from the ground in large trees. When on the ground they run in a series of bounds like tree squirrels. The long, bushy tail is carried almost straight out behind when they scamper off in alarm, but at other times is curved and undulating, much as in the tree squirrels. They gather and manipulate food with their front paws, sitting upright on their haunches to eat or look about. On one occasion when I came to a foot-bridge over a broad irrigating ditch across which a number of ground squirrels were raiding an orchard, they did not hesitate to dash at full speed into the swiftly running water and swam quickly across to seek refuge in their holes on the far side.

Like other spermophiles, the California ground squirrels hibernate for months in the cold, snow-covered parts of their winter range, but remain active throughout the year in the warmer areas, where no snow falls. Throughout their range they gather stores of seeds, grain, and acorns and other nuts, carrying them in their cheek pouches to underground store-rooms for use in bad weather. In the valleys of California they lie hidden in their burrows for days at a time during cold winter rains, but are out as soon as the sun reappears. One or more litters, each containing from six to twelve young, are born from March to late in summer, according to the locality. The young leave the nest and care for themselves when about half grown.

The swarming abundance of the California ground squirrel on foothill slopes and in fertile valley bottoms equals the congregations of prairie-dogs in their most populous districts. This abundance of small animal life supports a great variety of predatory species, as coyotes, foxes, bobcats, several kinds of hawks, and the golden eagle. Owing to its predilection for ground squirrels, the golden eagle is protected by law in California, where many of them build their nests in low live oaks only a few yards from the ground.

When house rats brought the bubonic plague to San Francisco a few years ago they also carried it across the bay and passed it on to the ground squirrels living in the foothills back of Oakland. Thence the disease spread among these animals through parts of several surrounding counties. The United States Public Health Service and the local authorities in a vigorous campaign stopped the spread of this malady, but not until the potential ability of these rodents as plague-carriers had been well established. This fact and the wide distribution of the California and other ground squirrels over a large part of the continent should not be overlooked in connection with possible future outbreaks of the plague. Fortunately, investigation and field experiments on a large scale have shown that these spermophiles may be destroyed by poison over great areas at a relatively small cost.

THE ANTELOPE CHIPMUNK (Ammospermophilus leucurus and its relatives)

(For illustration, [see page 539])

Commonly known as the antelope, or white-tailed, chipmunk, this handsome little mammal is in reality a species of spermophile, or ground squirrel. The misnomer is due, no doubt, to its small size, striped back, and sprightly ways. From the true chipmunks it may be distinguished by its heavier proportions, and from both chipmunks and all other spermophiles by its odd, upturned tail, carried closely recurved along the top of the rump. This character renders the species unmistakable at a glance and gives it an amusing air of jaunty self-confidence.

The antelope chipmunk is characteristic of the arid plains and lower mountain slopes of the Southwest from western Colorado through Utah, northern Arizona, Nevada, the southern half of California, and all of Lower California, and down the Rio Grande Valley through New Mexico to western Texas.

Within this area it occupies a wide variety of situations. It inhabits the intensely hot desert plains near sea level in Lower California, where the temperature rises to more than 125 degrees Fahrenheit in the shade and the vegetation is characterized by such picturesque forms of plant life as cactuses of many species, yuccas, fouquerias, palo verdes, ironwood, and creosote bushes; it is found also above 7,000 feet altitude on the cool plateaus and mountain slopes of Arizona and Colorado, among sage brush, greasewood, junipers, and piñon pines. It appears equally at home skipping nimbly over rocky slopes or among slide rock in arid canyons and scurrying through the brushy growth on broad sandy plains devoid of rocks.

The antelope chipmunk has the most vivacious and pleasing personality of all the numerous ground squirrels within our borders. During the many months I have camped and traveled on horseback in their haunts I have never lost interest in them. They were forever skirmishing among the bushes or dashing away down trails or over the rocks of canyon slopes, their white tails curled impudently over their backs like flags of derision at my cumbersome advance.

Their burrows are dug in a variety of places. In the open flats they enter the ground almost vertically, and often several entrances are grouped within a few yards. In some places a little mound of loose dirt is heaped up at one side of the entrance and at others there is no trace of it. Frequently, when the ground is soft, little trails lead in different directions from the entrances, and often between holes 100 yards or more apart, as though they made many social visits. The deserted burrows of other mammals are sometimes utilized to save the trouble of digging. The burrows are often under the shelter of cactuses, bushes, and great boulders or may be among crevices in the rocks.

Antelope chipmunks are extraordinarily active and continually wander far from home in search of food or in a spirit of restless inquiry. As the traveler on horseback rides slowly along he will see them racing away in front of him, sometimes climbing to the top of a bush 100 or 200 yards in advance for a better look at the wayfarer and then scuttling down and racing on again. In this way I have seen them keep ahead of me sometimes for several hundred yards instead of hiding in some hole or shelter, as they might easily do. At other times they were so unsuspicious they would permit me to pass within a few yards with slight signs of alarm. They have a chirping call, often uttered when watching from the top of a bush, and also a prolonged twittering or trilling note, diminishing toward the end.

In the higher and colder parts of their range, where snow lies long on the ground, these spermophiles hibernate for several months, but in the warmer areas they are active throughout the year. Wherever they occur they gather food and carry it to their underground store-rooms in their cheek pouches. Like most ground squirrels, they eat many kinds of seeds and fruits as well as flesh and insects when occasion offers. About cultivated lands they are sometimes abundant and destructive, digging up corn or other grain as soon as it is planted and also taking toll of the ripening grain until they become a pest. In the desert they often gather about camps to pick up the grain scattered about when the horses are fed.

It is well for them that they are prolific, having one or more litters during spring and summer, with from four to twelve in each, as they have many enemies. Snakes and weasels pursue them into their burrows, while foxes, coyotes, badgers, bobcats, and many kinds of hawks, constantly reduce their numbers.

THE GOLDEN CHIPMUNK (Callospermophilus lateralis chrysodeirus and its relatives)

(For illustration, [see page 542])

RED SQUIRREL

Sciurus hudsonicus

DOUGLAS SQUIRREL

Sciurus douglasi

The golden chipmunk, or calico squirrel, as it is named in Oregon, is the most richly colored of the several geographic races of a widely known species, Callospermophilus lateralis, abundant among the open forests of yellow pines and firs of the western ranges, including the Rocky Mountains, Cascades, and Sierra Nevada. Although commonly known as a chipmunk, this handsome animal is a ground squirrel, or spermophile, distinguished from all its kind by heavy stripes, resembling those of a chipmunk, along the sides of its back. From the chipmunks it may be distinguished at a glance by its thick-set and often almost obese proportions, which render its movements much slower and less graceful than they are with those nimble sprites. It occurs from northeastern British Columbia to New Mexico, southern California, and even in an area in the high Sierra Madre of southern Chihuahua, where an isolated representative occupies a limited range.

GRAY SQUIRREL (and black phase)

Sciurus carolinensis

RUSTY FOX SQUIRREL
Sciurus niger rufiventer FOX SQUIRREL
Sciurus niger

Their vertical distribution extends from a moderate elevation above the sea in Oregon to above 11,000 feet in southern California. They are common in the Yellowstone and other national parks, where their size, bright markings, and activities render them conspicuous.

Everywhere their habits resemble those of the various species of true chipmunks with which they associate. They live in burrows, which they dig under the shelter of logs, rocks, stumps, roots of trees, or even in open ground, as well as in the ready-made shelter of rock slides, with conies, at timberline. Their burrows at times have several entrances within a small area. Often they occupy the burrows of other animals, including pocket gophers. They excavate burrows under cabins or barns in clearings, and abandoned mining camps or old sawmill sites frequently abound with them. Nests and storage chambers are excavated off the passageways. The nests are usually made of leaves and other soft vegetable material, but in the sheep country wool, which they find in scattered tufts, is often used.

A camping party in their haunts is certain to attract them, and, as about barns, it is necessary to keep a watchful eye on them to prevent their robbing grain sacks or other supplies. When they once locate an accessible supply of grain their industry is remarkable. I have seen a dozen or more working throughout the day, making continuous hurried trips, with loaded cheek pouches, to their dens, sometimes two hundred yards away. On approach of autumn they become continually active, gathering their winter supplies.

The length of their hibernation varies with the severity of the climate, but is rarely under five months. It is said to run through seven months on the higher mountains of southern California. They usually go into winter quarters in September or early in October, but occasionally one may be seen out as late as December. At this time they have become so fat that their movements are very sluggish. One kept as a pet for eleven years at Klamath Falls, Oregon, is reported to have hibernated regularly each winter. In Montana they retire to their dens in September and come out in March. They mate soon after they appear in spring and the young, four to seven in number, are half grown the last of May.

Like true chipmunks, these spermophiles are fond of weedy clearings or other openings in the forest, where stumps, logs, rocks, and old fences offer plentiful shelter and many elevated vantage points where they may sit by the hour watching the doings of their small world. They have a sharp whistling or chirping call note, usually uttered as a warning cry, but sometimes as a social call. They do not like gloomy or stormy weather and generally lie hidden at such times, but on sunny days are so actively engaged in foraging, running along the tops of logs, or perching on the tops of stumps and large rocks that they add greatly to the pleasant animation of the forests where they live. When running they usually carry the tail elevated like a chipmunk.

They sun themselves for hours on elevated points, sometimes lying quiescent and again sitting bolt upright, but always watchful and ready to disappear at the slightest alarm. This watchfulness is necessary, for their enemies are abroad at all hours. They are the prey of bobcats, foxes, coyotes, weasels, snakes, and hawks.

The golden chipmunk and its related subspecies are omnivorous feeders. They show a strong predilection for bacon when looting camp stores and eat any kind of meat with avidity. Young birds and birds’ eggs are devoured whenever found, as are also grasshoppers, beetles, flies, larvæ, and many other insects. The number of kinds of seeds eaten is almost endless and includes chinquapin and pine nuts, rhus, alfileria, violet, lupine, ceanothus, and others. They also eat roses and other flowers, green leaves, wild currants, gooseberries and other fruit, and small tuberous roots. They often climb bushes and low trees, at least 30 feet from the ground, after nuts and berries. The capacity of their cheek pouches is shown by one instance, when one animal was loaded with 750 serviceberry seeds. The pouches of another contained 360 grains of barley, another 357 of oats. Bold and persistent camp robbers, their depredations cover all articles of food, including bread and cake, and they sometimes do considerable injury to small mountain grain fields.

I had the pleasure of living in the mountains of New Mexico and Arizona for several years where these attractive ground squirrels were numerous, and vividly remember them as among the most interesting of the woodland folk. Their friendliness about forest cabins is notable and with a little encouragement they become extremely confiding and amusing visitors.

The young are playful, pursuing one another in apparent games of “tag” over rocks, stumps, and logs. When partly grown they have all the heedlessness of youth and on one occasion an observer saw the mother repeatedly push the young back into crevices in a rock slide with her front feet, as they persisted in trying to come out to look at the strange intruder in their haunts.

THE EASTERN CHIPMUNK (Tamias striatus and its relatives)

(For illustration, [see page 542])

The chipmunks are close relatives of the tree squirrels, but live mainly on the ground, are provided with cheek pouches for carrying food to their hidden stores, and have many ways similar to those of the spermophiles, or ground squirrels. They are nearly circumpolar in distribution, ranging through eastern Europe and northern Asia as well as from the Atlantic to the Pacific in North America. On this continent they are far more numerous in species and individuals than in the Old World, and their center of abundance appears to lie in the mountainous western half of the United States. Their extreme range extends from near the Arctic Circle in Canada to Durango and Middle Lower California, Mexico.

As a group the chipmunks are widely known for their grace, beauty of coloration, and sprightly ways. Among the handsomest and most familiar is the common chipmunk of Canada and the United States east of the Great Plains. Within this area it is divided into several geographic races, of which the best known is the brightly colored animal occupying all the wooded region from the Great Lakes to Nova Scotia and New England, which is the subject of the accompanying illustration. Its vertical distribution extends from sea level to the summit of Mount Washington, where it may be seen on pleasant summer days.

The eastern chipmunks, like most of their kind, belong to the forest and its immediate environment. Favorite haunts are rocky ledges covered with vines and brush, half-cleared land, the brushy borders of old pasture fences, stone walls, and similar situations. In early days they were so plentiful in places that they made serious inroads on the scanty crops of the settlers, and bounties were offered for their destruction.

No one who visits the woods of the eastern States or Canada can fail to observe with pleasure the alert, attractive ways of these little squirrel-like animals. They are everywhere, including the vicinity of summer camps in the forest, and, if encouraged, prove most attractive and friendly neighbors. To such small beasts the world is peopled with enemies against which the only safeguard is eternal watchfulness. This accounts for the hesitating advances and retreats so characteristic of these chipmunks, which at the first sudden movement of any suspicious object, or loud noise, disappear like a flash. They soon learn to recognize a friend and in many places come regularly into camp buildings to receive food. I doubt, however, if they ever become quite so friendly as some squirrels under similar conditions.

Like most of the squirrel tribe, they are endowed with much curiosity, and at the appearance of anything unusual, but not too alarming, they seek some safe vantage point from which to peer at it with every sign of interest. They are extremely timid and wary, however, and if doubtful move by little cautious runs, stopping to sit up and look about, often mounting a stump, log, or a side of a tree trunk for the purpose, the tail all the time moving with slow undulations. If alarmed they dash away to the nearest shelter, the tail held nearly or quite erect and sometimes quivering excitedly. When running to shelter they often utter chattering cries of alarm. Their principal enemies are cats, weasels, martens, foxes, snakes, birds of prey, and the untamed small boy with his dog. Weasels, the supreme terror of their existence, follow them to the depths of their burrows and kill them ruthlessly.

These chipmunks are sociable and playful, often pursuing one another, first one and then the other being the pursuer, as though in a game. They race along fence tops and old logs and up stumps and even the lower parts of tree trunks. Lovers of bright, sunny weather, they usually remain hidden in their burrows during stormy days. If they venture out at such times they are quiet and show none of the mercurial liveliness which characterizes them when the weather is pleasant.

Their food includes a great variety of cultivated and wild plants, as wheat, buckwheat, corn, grass seed, ragweed seed, hazelnuts, acorns, beechnuts, strawberries, blueberries, wintergreen berries, mushrooms, and many others. In addition they eat May beetles and other insects and insect larvæ, snails, occasional frogs, salamanders, small snakes, and many young birds and eggs.

At all seasons they fill their cheek pouches with food to be carried away to their dens, but toward the end of summer or early fall they work industriously laying up stores of seeds and nuts. Sometimes these stores, hidden in chambers excavated for the purpose or in hollow logs and similar places, contain several quarts of beechnuts or other nuts or seeds. Small quantities of such food are hidden here and there under the leaves or in shallow pits in the ground. Store-rooms in one burrow contained a peck of chestnuts, cherry pits, and dogwood berries, and another had a half bushel of hickory nuts.

ABERT SQUIRREL
Sciurus aberti KAIBAB SQUIRREL
Sciurus kaibabensis

While at a summer camp I once saw one of these chipmunks give an exhibition of the exquisitely keen power of scent which must be necessary to recover scattered stores. The chipmunk had been coming repeatedly down a wooded slope in full view for twenty-five yards or more to the floor of the porch for food supplied by the campers. While it was absent carrying food to its burrow I placed a few nut meats on the flat top of a stump about fifteen feet to one side of the porch and farther away than the point where the chipmunk was being fed bread crumbs. On its return several minutes later, instead of going as usual to the porch, it ran directly to the stump, climbed up it, and promptly made off with the nuts, which it had evidently located from afar. They sometimes climb beeches and other trees to gather nuts even to a height of fifty or sixty feet, and are commonly seen on low limbs and in bushes.

FLYING SQUIRREL

Glaucomys volans

BLACK-FOOTED FERRET

Mustela nigripes

The entrances to the burrows are usually under logs, roots, or rocks, or the den may be in a hollow log, stump or base of a tree, or even under a cabin in the woods. The burrows in the ground are commonly a series of tunnels some yards in length, with an oval nest and storage chamber two or three feet underground, and with branches from the main passageway. The nest chamber, a foot or more in diameter, is filled with fragments of dry leaves and other soft vegetable material. One chamber is usually used for sanitary purposes. The used entrance hole is commonly without a sign of dug earth about it, the loose soil from the burrow and its chambers apparently having been thrown out at another opening, which appears to be used for this purpose only and is kept plugged with earth.

Throughout most of the northern half of its range these chipmunks usually hibernate from some time in October until March. Their hibernation is far less profound than that of the woodchuck and they not infrequently appear above ground during periods of mild weather, even in midwinter. The hibernating period is shorter in the southern part of the range.

They vary much in numbers from year to year and at times appear to increase suddenly in localities where food is plentiful, indicating a probable food migration. The young, numbering from four to six in a litter, are born at varying times between the last of April and late summer, indicating the possibility of more than one litter a season.

The most characteristic note of this chipmunk is a throaty chuck, chuck, which is ordinarily used as a call note, but which in spring is uttered many times in rapid succession to express the seasonal feeling of joy and well being, thus taking on the character of a song. Such joyful notes may be heard on every hand in places where the little songsters are numerous. In addition, they have a high-pitched, chirping note and a small churring whistle when much alarmed.

THE OREGON CHIPMUNK (Eutamias townsendi and its relatives)

(For illustration, [see page 543])

The resident species of birds and mammals in the humid coastal region of Oregon, Washington, and southern British Columbia are strikingly characterized by their darker and browner colors in comparison with closely related species in more arid districts.

The Oregon chipmunk is one of the common species showing marked response to these local climatic conditions and is the darkest of all the many species of chipmunks in the Western States. This chipmunk is one of several geographic races into which the species is divided by changing environment. The species, as a whole, ranges along the west coast from British Columbia to Lower California, and the races at the extremes of the line differ much in color.

As befits a habitant of the humid forested region, the Oregon chipmunk is robustly built and distinctly larger than the other chipmunks of the Western States. It is common and generally distributed throughout this region, occurring from among the drift logs along the ocean beach to above timberline on the Cascade Mountains. Within these limits it frequents almost every variety of situation. It occurs in the midst of gloomy forests of giant spruces, cedars, and firs, but is particularly fond of old fences and brush patches on the borders of farm clearings in the valleys as well as the vicinity of rocky ledges, brush piles, and fallen timber, where the low thickets offer a variety of food-bearing plants and ready shelter.

On the mountains it is most numerous about rock slides and “burns” or other openings in the forest. Several pairs usually haunt the vicinity of old sawmills and of mountain cabins. Like others of their kind, they are alert and vivacious, varying in mood from day to day, but always interesting. At times they are excessively shy and retiring, and a person might spend a day in their haunts without seeing or hearing one, although it is safe to say that the intruder had been seen and every foot of his progress noted by the chipmunks. On another day, perhaps because the sun shines more brightly and nature is in a happier mood, the animals appear on all sides. Their slowly repeated sociable chuck, chuck, is heard from the depths of the brushy covert as well as from the tops of stumps, logs, rocks, or other lookout points where they sit to view their surroundings. If alarmed they utter a sharp, birdlike chirping note as they vanish in the nearest shelter. As one moves about in their haunts he may now and then see one appear for a moment above the undergrowth in a tall bush, on top of a stump, and sometimes even mounting a few yards up a tree trunk to observe the cause of the disturbance, only to vanish quickly.

They are always skirmishing for food, and carrying it in their cheek pouches to hidden stores. On the approach of winter this activity becomes very marked. A surprising variety of fruits and seeds are eaten and stored, among them the salmonberry, red elderberry, black-capped raspberry, thimble berry, blackberry, blueberry, gooseberry, thistle seed, dogwood seed, hazelnuts, acorns, and others. They have favorite feeding places, such as the top of a stone or stump or the shelter of a log where they carry nuts or other seeds. These places are always marked by little piles of empty shells or chaff from seeds. About ranches they raid grain fields and other crops, sometimes in numbers sufficient to do considerable damage.

In sheltered spots they make underground burrows with nest chamber and store-rooms excavated along the passages. They usually retire to these dens to hibernate during the last of September or first of October, and appear again about March or April, often long before the snow disappears. During fall and early winter they are sometimes seen running about over newly fallen snow. One which was dug from its winter quarters in British Columbia the last of November would move about slowly and sleepily if teased, but when left undisturbed would curl up and go to sleep again. This indicates the difference between the light and often broken hibernation of chipmunks and the deep lethargy which possesses ground squirrels in the North at this time. Toward the southern end of their ranges neither chipmunk nor ground squirrel hibernates. They mate soon after they awake from their winter sleep, and the young, two to five or six in number, are born from April to June. Whether more than one litter is born during a season, is, like many other details concerning the lives of these attractive animals, still to be learned.

THE PAINTED CHIPMUNK (Eutamias minimus pictus and its relatives)

(For illustration, [see page 543])

The preceding sketch tells how the Oregon chipmunk, living under a cool, humid climate, in a region of great forests, has responded to its environment by developing dark colors and a robust physique. The painted chipmunk of the Great Basin has given an equally perfect response to entirely different conditions. It is one of the geographic races of a species peculiar to the sagebrush-covered plains and hills from the Dakotas across the Rocky Mountains and the Great Basin region to the east slope of the Cascades and the Sierra Nevada. Its home is on treeless plains, in a climate characterized by brilliant sunshine and clear, dry air. In this environment the painted chipmunk has developed a smaller and slenderer body than the Oregon species, and strikingly paler colors.

These differences in physique are accompanied by equal differences in mental and physical expression. These little animals are exceedingly alert and agile, darting through dense growths of bushes with all the easy grace of weasels. When running they hold the tail stiffly erect. When alarmed they utter a shrill chippering cry, especially when darting into shelter. They also have a chucking call, uttered at intervals, which may be used merely as a note of sociability or to put their neighbors on the alert.

Although one of the most distinctive animals of the sagebrush plains, this chipmunk also ranges into the borders of open forests on the mountain sides. It is most numerous on flats and foothill slopes among heavy growths of sage and rabbit brush. When its territory is invaded by settlers it does not hesitate to gather about the borders of fields and even to raid barns in search of grain and other food. Its burrows are dug under large sagebrush and other bushes and under rocks and similar shelter.

As with others of their kind, painted chipmunks habitually gather seeds of many plants and carry them in their cheek pouches to their underground dens. In addition to seeds and green vegetation, they eat any fruits growing in their haunts, and also many insects, especially grasshoppers and larvae. In one locality in Nevada during June and July more than half their food consisted of a web worm and its chrysalids with which the sage bushes swarmed. The chipmunks climbed into the bushes and pulled the larvæ from the webs. As half the bushes were infested, the work of the many chipmunks had a material effect in reducing the numbers of this pest. The vegetable food eaten includes the seeds of Ribes, Kuntzia, Sarcobatus, pigweed, and many other weeds, serviceberry, various grasses, oats, wheat, and the seeds of small cactuses. They regularly climb into the tops of large sage and other bushes for their seeds and the ground beneath is often covered with the small sections of twigs cut by them. They climb readily and often travel from bush to bush through tall thickets like squirrels in tree-tops. On warm mornings after frosty nights they may be seen in the tops of the bushes basking in the sun.

Throughout most of their range they begin hibernation in September or October, and reappear early in spring. The young appear a month or more later, and litters containing from two to six may be born throughout the summer, indicating the possibility that several litters may be born to the same pair in a season.

So alert and shy are they that even a person in their haunts day after day will see but few of them. Their hearing is extremely acute, and even at a great distance the footsteps of an intruder sets them all on the alert. On every side they run swiftly to cover before the observer has opportunity to see them. In such places a large setting of baited traps will reveal their presence in surprising numbers. In one locality, during a brief visit, traps set among the brush for other small mammals yielded more than forty chipmunks.

On stormy and cloudy days, especially if the weather is cool, painted chipmunks remain in their dens, but on mild sunny days they frisk about with amazingly quick darting movements. A horseman riding along a road leading through a sagebrush flat will frequently see them racing across the road often several hundred yards away, the sound of the horse’s footfalls having alarmed the chipmunks over a wide area. Here and there one may be seen climbing hastily to the top of a tall bush to take a look at the cause of alarm before finally seeking concealment. When pursued among the bushes they often run considerable distances before taking refuge in a burrow. When hard pressed they will enter the first opening encountered, but if it is not its own home the fugitive soon comes out and scampers away, apparently fearful of the return of the owner or perhaps owing to his presence.

Winter Summer

LEAST WEASEL

Mustela rixosa

LARGE WEASEL, or STOAT (Winter and Summer)

Mustela arcticus

Apparently, as in the case of many other desert mammals, the painted chipmunk, with its related races, is able to subsist without drinking, since it is often seen far out on arid plains many miles from the nearest water.

MARTEN, or AMERICAN SABLE

Martes americana

AMERICAN MINK

Mustela vison

As with all its kind, the world of the painted chipmunk is filled with imminent peril of sudden death. Overhead, gliding on silent pinions, are hawks of several species, while on the ground snakes, weasels, badgers, bobcats, foxes, and coyotes are ever searching for them as prey.

THE RED SQUIRREL (Sciurus hudsonicus and its relatives)

(For illustration, [see page 546])

Every one who has visited the forests of Canada and northeastern United States knows the vivacious, rollicking, and frequently impudent red squirrel. This entertaining little beast, known also as the pine squirrel and chickaree, has little of that woodland shyness so characteristic of most forest animals. It often searches out the human visitor to its haunts and from a low branch or tree trunk sputters, barks, and scolds the intruder, working itself into a frenzy of excitement. This habit, combined with the rusty red color and small size of the animal, about half that of the gray squirrel, renders its identity unmistakable. It has distinct winter and summer coats, but in both the rusty red prevails. The winter dress is distinguished, however, by small tufts on the ears.

The red squirrel, with its related small species, occupying most of the wooded parts of North America north of Mexico, forms a strongly characterized group, with no near kin among the squirrels of the Old World. In its geographic races it ranges through the forests of all Alaska and Canada and south to Idaho, Wyoming, the Dakotas, Wisconsin, northern Indiana, all the Northeastern States to the District of Columbia, and along the Alleghenies to South Carolina. Owing to its small size, this animal, like the chipmunk, is considered too small for game, although occasionally hunted for sport. As a consequence its increase or decrease is usually governed by the available food supply, although man interferes locally when it becomes too destructive.

This squirrel shows a strong preference for coniferous forests, whether of hemlock, spruce, fir, or pine, but may be common in woods where conifers are few and widely scattered. Although usually diurnal and busily occupied from sunrise until sunset, it sometimes continues its activities during moonlight nights, especially when nuts are ripe and it is time to gather winter stores. During warm, pleasant days in spring and fall, when the nights are cool, it often lies at full length along the tops of large branches during the middle of the day, basking in the grateful warmth of the sun.

The nests, which are located in a variety of situations, are made of twigs, leaves, or moss, and lined with fibrous bark and other soft material. Some are in knot-holes or other hollows in trees, others may be built outside on limbs near the trunk, and still others are in burrows made in the ground under roots, stumps, logs, brush heaps, or other cover offering secure refuge. Apparently several litters, of young, containing from four to six, are born each season, as they have been found from April to September.

They do not hibernate, but are active throughout the year, except during some of the coldest and most inclement weather. To provide against the season of scarcity, they accumulate at the base of a tree, under the shelter of a log, or other cover, great stores of pine, spruce, or other cones, sometimes in heaps containing from six to ten bushels. They also hide scattered cones here and there and place stores of beechnuts, corn, and other seeds in hollows or underground store-rooms. They are fond of edible mushrooms and sometimes lay up half a bushel of them among the branches of trees or bushes to dry for winter use. In the western mountains their great stores of pine cones are often robbed by seed-gatherers for forestry nurseries. In winter they tunnel through the snow to their hidden stores and sometimes continue the tunnels from one store to another.

Each squirrel makes its home for a long period in or about a certain tree. There he carries his cones to extract the seeds, and on the ground beneath it the accumulation of fallen scales and centers of cones sometimes amounts to fifteen or twenty bushels. In addition to the seeds of the various conifers, red squirrels eat many kinds of fruits and seeds; they also raid cornfields and orchards and even make nests in barns and woodsheds to be near the food supply which some farmer’s industry has collected.

Red squirrels have the interesting habit of voluntarily swimming streams and lakes, including such bodies of water as Lake George and even the broadest parts of Lake Champlain. When they thus cross the water and make their migrations, there is little doubt that they are usually in search of a better feeding ground.

The red squirrels and related species have the greatest variety of notes possessed by any of the American members of the squirrel family. In addition to the barking, scolding, chattering notes already mentioned, they have a real song, which is one of the most attractive of woodland notes. It is a long-drawn series of musical rolling or churring notes, varied at times by cadences and having a ventriloquial quality rendering it difficult to locate. These notes never fail to awaken pleasurable emotions and to recall to me my early boyhood in the Adirondacks, where the spring songs of the chickarees were among the first calls which awakened me to the marvelous beauties of nature.

The worst trait of the red squirrel and one which largely overbalances all his many attractive qualities is his thoroughly proved habit of eating the eggs and young of small birds. During the breeding season he spends a large part of his time in predatory nest hunting, and the number of useful and beautiful birds he thus destroys must be almost incalculable. The number of red squirrels is very great over a continental area, and one close observer believes each squirrel destroys 200 birds a season. Practically all species of northern warblers, vireos, thrushes, chickadees, nuthatches, and others are numbered among their victims. The notable scarcity of birds in northern forests may be largely due to these handsome but vicious marauders.

In the fur country these squirrels are much disliked by the trappers for their constant interference with meat-baited traps. Many fall victims to their carnivorous desires, but their places are soon taken by others.

The energy and unfailing variety in the performances of red squirrels always keep the attention of their human neighbors. Among other interesting activities, their pursuit of one another up and down and around the trunks of trees, over the ground, along logs, back and forth in the most reckless abandon, is most entertaining to watch. These pursuits among the young are playful and harmless, but among the males in spring are of the most deadly character. I have seen the victim go up and down tree after tree, shrieking in fear and agony and leaving a trail of blood on the snow as he tried to escape his truculent pursuer.

Such scenes as this, combined with our knowledge of its bird-killing habits, appear belied by the exquisite grace and beauty of this squirrel as it sits on a branch and sends its musical cadences trilling through the primeval forest. So confirmed are red squirrels in the destruction of bird life, however, they should not be permitted to become very numerous anywhere and it may eventually become necessary to outlaw them wherever found.

THE DOUGLAS SQUIRREL (Sciurus douglasi and its relatives)

(For illustration, [see page 546])

In all details of size, form, notes, and habits the Douglas squirrel gives testimony to its descent from the same ancestral stock as the common red squirrel (Sciurus hudsonicus). The typical Douglas squirrel, represented in the accompanying illustration, is one of several geographic races of a species which ranges from the Cascades and Sierra Nevada to the Pacific, and from British Columbia south to the San Pedro Martir Mountains of Lower California. The home of the Douglas squirrel is amid the wonderful coniferous forests of western Oregon, Washington, and southern British Columbia. As in other mammals of this extremely humid region, the colors of its upperparts are dark brown, in strong contrast to the much paler and grayer colors of the closely related subspecies living in the clearer and more arid climate of the Sierra Nevada in California. These squirrels are known locally by a variety of common names, including pine squirrel, redwood squirrel, and “drummer.”

Although usually not quite so noisy and self-assertive as the irrepressible little red blusterer of eastern forests, the Douglas squirrel is also notable for its rollicking, chattering character and sometimes cannot be outdone in its amusing displays of aggressive impudence. When the animals are numerous the air at times resounds with their call notes or songs, one answering the other, now near and now far, until the somber depths of the mighty forest seems peopled with a multitude of these joyous furry sprites. Their song, resembling that of the red squirrel, is a rapid trilling or bubbling series of notes, long drawn out and sometimes varied by cadences. It is so musical that it seems more like the song of some strange bird than of a mammal. When these squirrels are not common they are much less given to song and seem subdued and shy, as though impressed by the vast loneliness of their deep forest haunts.

At mating time, early in spring, they are especially noisy, and again in summer when the first litter of young are out trying their youthful pipes in expression of their cheerful well being. They frequently come down on a low branch or on the trunk of a tree and chatter, bark, and scold at man, dog, or other intruder, now rushing up and down, or making little dashes around the tree trunk, their necks outstretched and tails flirting with a great show of anger and contempt highly entertaining to see. They are restlessly active at all seasons of the year and habitually chase one another through the forest with an appearance of rollicking fun which may many times be in more deadly earnest than appears to the casual observer.

In winter their tracks in the snow lead from tree to tree, along the tops of logs and fences, and in all directions to hidden stores of food, which they appear to be able to locate with unerring certainty under the snow. An adventurous spirit leads them to race away from the forest, along fence-tops, to pay visits to ranch buildings and even to villages and small towns. Like their eastern relative, the Douglas squirrels are omnivorous, feeding on the seeds of all the conifers in their range, including spruces, firs, pines, and redwoods, and also upon acorns, and a great variety of other seeds, fruits, and mushrooms, insects, birds’ eggs, young birds, and any other meat they can find. Owing to their habit of interfering with meat-baited traps, they are a nuisance to trappers. They frequently visit orchards and carry off apples and pears, from which they extract the seeds. They have been seen also to visit the wounds made on a willow trunk by sapsuckers to drink the flowing sap. Their feet and the fur about their mouths are often much gummed with pitch from working on pine cones.

LITTLE SPOTTED SKUNK

Spilogale putorius

COMMON SKUNK

Mephitis mephitis

In many places the soft, moist earth in the woods is riddled with little pits dug by these squirrels apparently when they are after larvæ or perhaps edible roots. Throughout the summer, but especially during the last half of the season, and in autumn Douglas squirrels work with persistent energy to amass great stores of seed-bearing cones, which they heap, sometimes bushels of them, about the bases of trees, stumps, and the upturned roots of fallen trees or under other shelter. Cones are also buried here and there in the loose leaves and humus. In winter many holes in the snow with piles of cone scales at the entrances show where the owners have dug down to their stores.

HOG-NOSED SKUNK

Conepatus mesoleucus

NINE-BANDED ARMADILLO

Dasypus novemcincta

Some of their nests are constructed in hollow trees, many others on branches near their junction with the trunks, and still others in underground dens under roots, logs, or stumps. In winter when alarmed these squirrels sometimes race down the tree trunks and take refuge in holes leading through the snow to their food caches and underground burrows. The nests built in tree-tops are usually rather bulky, measuring a foot or more in diameter, and are made of small twigs, dry leaves, moss, grass, and fibrous bark. They are commonly lined with such soft material as feathers and fur. The young, numbering three to seven at a litter, are born at any time between April and October.

The extraordinary intelligence and sense of prevision possessed by squirrels of this group is well illustrated by certain local food migrations. These have been observed in eastern Oregon in years when the cone crop has failed and nothing was available to lay up for winter. Under such conditions to remain in the mountain forests would mean death by starvation before winter had fairly begun. In 1910 and 1913 failure of the cone crop occurred in eastern Oregon and these squirrels promptly left the mountain forests in September and descended along creek courses to the open sagebrush plains as much as seven or more miles from the border of their ordinary haunts. In this open country they wintered successfully, raiding the farmers’ grain bins, root cellars, and other stores, and otherwise showing their supreme fitness to survive in the struggle for existence. With the coming again of summer they promptly returned to their abandoned homes in the pines. It appears to be one of the marvels of animal intelligence that under such circumstances as those named above the entire body of the squirrels on the mountains should have known what to do, especially as a great percentage of their number could never have had any previous experience as a guide.

THE GRAY SQUIRREL (Sciurus carolinensis and its relatives)

(For illustration, [see page 547])

The gray squirrel is so well known to everyone in the Eastern States that it scarcely needs an introduction. Many who have not seen it in its native haunts are familiar with it as a graceful and charming resident of parks in many cities. It is about twice as large as the red squirrel and intermediate in size between that species and the fox squirrel. Although sharing some of the range of both the species named, the color of the gray squirrel at once distinguishes it.

The gray squirrel is a North American species with no near relative in the Old World; on the Pacific coast, in the mountains of the Southwest, and in Mexico are other squirrels having much the same gray-colored body, but with no close relationship to it. Its range covers the deciduous forests of the Eastern States and southern Canada from Nova Scotia to Florida, and westward to the border of the treeless Great Plains. Wherever they occur these squirrels are an attractive element in the woodland life, their barking and chattering, their graceful forms, and their activity adding greatly to the cheerful animation of the forest. They are far less vociferous than red squirrels, but their notes are varied and serve to express a variety of meanings.

During the early settlement of the country west of the States bordering the coast, gray squirrels existed in great numbers and often made ruinous inroads on the pioneer corn and wheat fields. In 1749 they invaded Pennsylvania in such hosts that a bounty of three pence each was put on their scalps. Eight thousand pounds sterling was paid on this account, which involved the killing of 640,000 squirrels. In 1808 a law in force in Ohio required that each free white male deliver 100 squirrel scalps a year or pay $3 in cash. Records of the ravages of these squirrels in corn fields are extant also from Kentucky, Missouri, and other States.

Enormous migrations of gray squirrels from one part of the country to another occurred in those days, caused apparently by the failure of food supplies in the deserted areas. Some impulse to move in one general direction at the same time appeared to affect the squirrels and they swarmed across country in amazing numbers, carrying devastation to any farms crossed on the way. When engaged in such movements they appeared indifferent to obstacles and without hesitation swam lakes and streams even as large as the Hudson and the Ohio. Amusing legends grew up concerning these migrations, one of which avers that when the squirrels arrived on a river bank each dragged a large chip or piece of bark into the water and mounting it raised its bushy tail in the breeze and was wafted safely to the other shore! As a fact, many were drowned in crossing large streams and others arrived exhausted from their exertions.

The gray and fox squirrels were favorite targets for pioneer marksmen. The early chronicles tell of the ability of Daniel Boone and other riflemen to “bark” a squirrel, which meant so to cut the bark of the branch on which the squirrel sat as to bring it to the ground stunned without hitting the animal. With the clearing away of the forests, the general occupation of the country, and the decrease of larger animals, gray squirrels have been deprived of most of their haunts and have become such desirable game that they have decreased to a point requiring stringent legal protection to save them from extermination.

Gray squirrels are more thoroughly arboreal than red squirrels and make their nests either in hollow trunks or build them in the tops of trees. These outside nests are common and much like a crow’s nest in appearance except that they are generally more bulky and show more dead leaves. They are built on a foundation of small sticks with a rounded top of leaves, and are lined with shreds of bark, moss, and similar soft material. In the extreme northern part of their range they live mainly in hollow trees, but farther south many winter in outside nests. During severe cold and in stormy weather they remain hidden, sometimes for days at a time.

They have two litters of four to six young a year, the first usually being born in March or April. The old squirrel is a devoted mother and if the nest is disturbed she will at once carry the young to some safer retreat.

In many parts of their range black, or melanistic, individuals are born in litters otherwise of the ordinary gray color. In some districts the number of the black squirrels equals or exceeds the gray ones.

Gray squirrels range through such a variety of climatic conditions that their food varies greatly. They eat practically all available nuts, including acorns, chestnuts, beechnuts, hickory-nuts, and pecans, besides numberless seeds, many small fruits, and mushrooms. They raid fields for corn and wheat, and steal apples, pears, and quinces from orchards to eat the seeds. Like most other small rodents, they are fond of larvæ and insects and also destroy many birds’ eggs and young birds. They are far less serious offenders, however, in destroying birds than the red squirrel.

On the approach of winter they lay up stores of seeds and nuts in holes in trees and in little hiding places on the ground. Many nuts are hidden away singly. In the public parks of Washington, where many gray squirrels exist, I have repeatedly seen them dig a little pit two or three inches deep, then push a nut well down it cover it with earth, which they press firmly in place with the front feet, and then pull loose grass over the spot. One squirrel will have many such hidden nuts, and with nothing to mark the location it appears impossible that they could be recovered. That the squirrels knew what they were doing I have had repeated evidence in winter, even with several inches of snow on the ground, when they have been seen sniffing along the top of the snow, suddenly stop, dig down and unearth a nut with a precision that demonstrates the marvelous delicacy of their sense of smell. Although mainly diurnal, they are sometimes abroad on moonlight nights, especially when gathering stores of food for winter.

Wherever they are, these squirrels are extremely graceful, moving along the ground by curving bounds, the long fluffy tail undulating as they go, or running through the tree-tops, leaping from branch to branch with an ease and certainty beautiful to see. When pressed they make amazing leaps from tree to tree or even from a high tree-top to the ground without injury. They are extremely cunning at concealing themselves by lying flat on top of branches or by gliding around tree trunks, keeping them interposed between themselves and the pursuer.

Gray squirrels are so responsive to protection that they may continue to grace our remaining forests if we properly guard them. In addition to their beauty, they are interesting game animals which should continue to afford a moderate amount of sport—sufficient to prevent them from becoming overabundant and destructive. Now introduced in many city parks throughout the United States and in parts of England, including London, their ready acceptance of people as friends renders them charming animals in such places; but natural food is so scarce under these artificial conditions that care must be taken to feed them at all seasons, especially in winter.

THE FOX SQUIRREL (Sciurus niger and its relatives)

(For illustration, [see page 547])