Flying Squirrel.
Ground Squirrel
[[322]]
There is a small species of squirrels abounding in the woods, which the English call ground Squirrels. Catesby has described and drawn them from life, in the 2d. Vol. of his Natural History of Carolina, p. 75, tab. 75, and Edwards in his Natural History of Birds, t. 181.[50] He and Dr. Linnæus call it Sciurus striatus, or the streaked Squirrel. These do not properly live in trees, as others of this genus, but dig holes in the ground (much in the same manner as rabbets) in which they live, and whither they take refuge when they perceive any danger. Their holes go deep, and commonly further inwards divide into many branches. They are also cunning enough [[323]]to make sometimes an opening or hole to the surface of the ground from one of these branches. The advantage they have from hence, is that when they stroll about for food, and the hole is stopt up through which they went out, they may not expose themselves to be caught, but presently find the other hole, into which they may retreat: but in autumn, when the leaves fall from the trees, or sometime after, it is diversion to see the consternation they are sometimes in when pursued; for their holes being easily covered with the great fall of leaves, or by the wind, they have a great deal to do, to find them on a sudden: they then run backwards and forwards, as if they had lost their way: they seem to know the places where they have made their subterraneous walks, but cannot conceive where the entrances are. If they be then pursued, and one claps his hands, they know no other refuge than that of climbing upon a tree; for it is to be observed that these squirrels always live under ground, and never climb upon trees unless pursued, and unable in the hurry to find their holes. This kind of squirrels is much more numerous in Pensylvania, than in any other province of North America through which I have travelled. Its length is commonly six [[324]]inches, without the curved tail; and it is very narrow. The skin is ferruginous, or of a reddish brown, and marked with five black streaks, one of which runs along the back, and two on each side. Their food consists of all sorts of corn, as rye, barley, wheat, maize, and of acorns, nuts, &c. They gather their winter provisions in autumn, like the common grey squirrels, and keep them in their holes under ground. If they get into a granary, they do as much mischief as mice and rats. It has often been observed that if, after eating rye, they come to some wheat, they throw up the former, which they do not like so well as the wheat, in order to fill their belly with the latter. When the maize is reaped in the fields, they are very busy in biting off the ears, and filling the pouches in their mouth with corn, so that their cheeks are quite blown up. With this booty they hasten into the holes which they have made in the ground.
As a Swede was making a mill-dyke, pretty late in autumn, he employed for that purpose the soil of a neighbouring hill, and met with a hole on a subterraneous walk belonging to these squirrels; he followed it for some time, and discovered a walk on one side like a branch, parting from the chief stem: it was near two feet [[325]]long, and at its end was a quantity of choice acorns of the white oak, which the little careful animal had stored up for winter. Soon after he found another walk on the side like the former, but containing a fine store of maize: the next had hiccory nuts, and the last and most hidden one contained some excellent chesnuts, which might have filled two hats.
In winter these squirrels are seldom seen, for during that season they live in their subterraneous holes upon the provisions, which they have stored up there. However on a very fine and clear day they sometimes come out. They frequently dig through the ground, into cellars in which the country people lay up their apples, which they partly eat, and partly spoil, so that the master has little or nothing left. They handle the maize stores full as roughly as the apples. But the cats are their great enemies, who devour them and bring them home to their young ones: their flesh is not eaten by men, and their skin is not made use of.
Of all the squirrels in the country, these are the most difficult to be tamed; for, though they be caught very young, yet it is dangerous to touch them with naked hands, as they bite very sharp when one is [[326]]not aware of them. Many boys, who had lost a deal of time in trying to tame these squirrels, owned that they knew of no art to make them quite tame; at least they are never so far tamed as the other species. In order to do any thing towards taming them they must be caught when they are very small. Some people kept them in that state in a cage, because they looked very pretty.
I shall take an other opportunity of speaking of the black and ferruginous squirrels, which likewise inhabit this country.
November the 15th. In the morning I returned to Philadelphia. Mr. Cock told me to day, and on some other occasions afterwards, an accident which happened to him, and which seemed greatly to confirm a peculiar sign of an imminent hurricane. He sailed to the West Indies in a small yacht, and had an old man on board, who had for a considerable time sailed in this sea. The old man sounding the depth, called to the mate to tell Mr. Cock to launch the boats immediately, and to put a sufficient number of men into them, in order to tow the yacht during the calm, that they might reach the island before them, as soon as possible, as within twenty-four hours there would be a strong hurricane. Mr. Cock asked him what reasons he had to think so, [[327]]the old man replied, that on sounding, he saw the lead in the water at a distance of many fathoms more than he had seen it before; that therefore the water was become clear all of a sudden, which he looked upon as a certain sign of an impending hurricane in the sea. Mr. Cock likewise saw the excessive clearness of the water. He therefore gave immediate orders for launching the boat, and towing the yacht, so that they arrived before night in a safe harbour. But before they had quite reached it the waves began to rise more and more, and the water was as it were boiling, though no wind was perceptible. In the ensuing night the hurricane came on, and raged with such violence, that not only many ships were lost, and the roofs were torn off from the houses, but even Mr. Cock’s yacht and other ships, though they were in safe harbours, were by the wind, and the violence of the sea, washed so far on shore, that several weeks elapsed, before they could be got off.
An old Dutch skipper said, that he had once caught a dogfish in the bay of New York, which being cut open, had a quantity of eels in his stomach.