BY JAMES STEELE.
The five varieties of squirrels that are found in North America are commonly known as the red squirrel, the gray, the flying, the striped squirrel or chipmonk, and the fox and black squirrels. These last two are extremely rare, and are found only in the West. In the Middle and Eastern States the red squirrel is the most abundant. He is to be seen almost everywhere in the woods, and his noisy impudent call, which has earned him the name of chickaree, is one of the most familiar sounds in the woods and trees along the road-side. The larger and shyer gray squirrel, although still abundant, is not so numerous or so often seen as the red squirrel, and the flyers are still more rare. The chipmonk finds his home among the stone walls and along the fences; he has little value as a pet. The red and gray are easily caught and tamed, but the flying-squirrel makes the best pet of all.
The red squirrel lives in a hole in the ground, or the hollow of a tree, and both he and the chipmonk can be caught in an ordinary box-trap placed upon the ground near their familiar haunts. They are usually easy victims.
The gray squirrel, who lives in a nest that he builds himself, is much more wary than the red squirrel or the chipmonk. The trap for him should be set in his runway on the ground, or in the branches of the tree which he frequents.
The flying-squirrel lives sometimes, like the chickaree, in a hole in a dead limb, or he often takes the old abandoned nest of a gray squirrel for his home, lining it with very much softer material than the former occupant used. But most frequently he lives in the hollow of some limb. While he does not really fly, in the time sense of the word, the curious parachutelike folds of skin extending from the fore to the hind legs enable him to make very long leaps, sometimes a distance of forty feet from one tree to another, although this is unusual. He is the brightest and most interesting of all the squirrels, and when once tamed he makes the most affectionate and loyal pet.
A good way to catch a flying-squirrel that lives in a hollow limb—usually an old woodpecker's hole—is to take a stocking, put it over the hole, and then have some one beat with a stick upon the limb below. Presently the little fellow will come plunging out, and, of course, into the stocking, where he can be tied up, carried home, and emptied, as it were, into the cage.
To tame a squirrel is no easy matter, especially if he is a very old one. His bite is very severe, but when once tamed he can be handled with impunity so long as he is not hurt.
To teach a squirrel to become accustomed to handling, however, requires some patience. Every time he is fed it is well to make a little clucking sound, or something he will recognize as a friendly call meaning feeding-time. After having tamed him so that he will eat while you are watching him, which he will sometimes do in one or two days, get him accustomed to having your hand around the cage. Then lasso or noose him around his body with a small cord, and take him out of the cage without lifting him by the cord. Take care, for he will bite and sink his little teeth almost through the bone of your finger if he has the chance.
Now take a glove that has been stuffed full of cotton, and stroke him gently with it. If he attempts to bite, which he is almost certain to do, give him a little tweak. Repeat this as often as he tries to bite, and he will soon learn that if he sits still he is all right. Now feed him from the thick glove. In a surprisingly short time he will give up all idea of biting, and you can stroke him or pick him up with your hand, and carry him about in your pocket. He will grow wonderfully attached to you, and when once tamed thoroughly he will never run away; although he may pay short visits to his mates, he will return to you. But pray remember this, that his deadly enemy is the cat.
His cage should be made as much as possible of metal, and kept scrupulously clean. It should be provided with an exercising wheel, or treadmill, although when a squirrel is perfectly tame and permitted to run about he will get all the exercise he needs on his little excursions about the house or up in the trees.