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])