Gray squirrel

“ With footfall so light that he is seen close at hand sooner than heard, a hare limps past; too early clad in his white fur that shall make him inconspicuous amid the winter snow, his coming shines from afar through the gray underbrush and on the tawny leaves. Unseen amid his dun and gray environment, the ruffed grouse skulks unheard, till he bursts away in thunderous flight. Overhead, invisible in the lofty thicket of a hemlock's foliage, a squirrel drops a slow patter of cone chips, while undisturbed a nuthatch winds his spiral way down the smooth trunk. ”

“ Above, its color is clean iron-gray, which in southern specimens is mixed with dull yellow. The lower surface is white, varying to yellowish brown. Usually it nests in hollow trees, but when crowded for room builds an open nest of green leaves, or strippings of cedar bark made into a round ball. The young are usually five in number. The gray squirrel frequently consents to live in city parks, and becomes quite tame. It spends much of its time upon the ground, searching for nuts, roots, or anything which can be eaten. ”

“ The Red Squirrel by his color, during the summer it is a red-brown with a white vest bordered on the sides with a dark line. He changes his coat twice a year, and his winter garment is duller and not nearly so red, while the vest is gray without the dark border.
When you find a squirrel’s nest in the crotch of a tree instead of in a hole you may be pretty sure it belongs to the gray squirrel, which is said to be the most easily tamed of all its family.
Do not mistake
The Chipmunk for a squirrel, although he does resemble one and his lively chatter seems to be in the same language. ”

“ Sinuous as a snake and swifter, his cruel eyes glowing like points of live flame, the long yellow form of the weasel darted forward. With a faint squeak of terror the squirrel sprang for the sloping trunk, his own hope being to get high enough to launch himself into the air. But the flying-squirrel is less nimble on his feet than the red or the gray. He was much slower than the weasel. He gained the sloping trunk, indeed, but the foe was almost at his heels. It looked as if the doom of the wild was upon him. ”

“ The tail of the gray squirrel shows to best advantage when he is running over the ground in the woods—and a long, graceful, undulating line of soft silver gray the creature makes! In my part of the country the gray squirrel is more strictly a wood-dweller than the red, and has the grace and elusiveness that belong more especially to the sylvan creatures. ”

“ 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. ”

“ EAST of the Missouri River the Gray Squirrel is found almost everywhere, and is perhaps the most common variety. Wherever there is timber it is almost sure to be met with, and in many localities is very abundant, especially where it has had an opportunity to breed without unusual disturbance. Its usual color is pale gray above and white or yellowish white beneath, but individuals of the species grade from this color through all the stages to jet black. Gray and black Squirrels are often found associating together. ”

“ It is the gray squirrel that is the most contented in captivity, and the most easily tamed; therefore, if one really thinks it necessary to his happiness to make a prisoner of such a liberty-loving little creature, he should procure one of the gray species.
If the reader is a would-be squirrel owner, and proposes to catch one in the woods, he will be obliged to take just the kind of one that is foolish enough to enter his trap ”

“ His Colour is commonly gray; yet I have seen several pied ones, and some reddish, and black; his chiefest Haunts are in the Piny Land, where the Almond-Pine grows. There he provides his Winter-Store; they being a Nut that never fails of bearing. He may be made tame, and is very good Meat, when killed.
Small gray Squirrel.
The next sort of Squirrel is much of the Nature of the English, only differing in Colour. Their Food is Nuts (of all sorts the Country affords) and Acorns. They eat well; and, like the Bear, are never found with young. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ They pass on, beneath the tangled shade, holding high talk on matters of state and religion, and imagine, doubtless, that their own system of affairs will endure forever. Meanwhile, how full of its own proper life is the scene that lies around them! The gray squirrel runs up the trees, and rustles among the upper branches. ”

“ The doom which always hangs over the Little People fell upon them. In the gray hour just before the dawn, one fatal day, what looked like a brown squirrel, with a white throat and paws and a short tail, came to the chipmunk colony. Yet no squirrel ever had such bloodred eyes, such a serpent-like head, or a body so lithe and sinuous. The deadly visitor was none other than the lesser, or short-tailed, weasel, far more dangerous to the Little People than his larger kinsman, since he was small enough to enter their burrows. ”

“ The beautiful silver-gray squirrel loves the nuts of this pine, and it is said that he eats so many that few are left to sprout and make new trees. For this reason some people would like to make it lawful to kill all the gray squirrels that one wished. ”

“ It is a common thing to see them perched upon the tops of fence posts or stumps. Individuals may under certain circumstances so nearly resemble Gray Squirrels as to be actually mistaken for them. This emphasis of the tree-climbing habit in the Douglas Ground Squirrel is, suggestively enough, thus associated with greater length of tail and grayer tone of color of tail, as compared with its nearest relatives. It seems, also, that this species, more generally than any other, raids orchard trees such as almond and apricot. ”

“ Description.—Size large, slightly smaller than the western gray squirrel; color of upper parts less silvery, more reddish, especially on the dorsal area and top of the tail.
Remarks.—The eastern gray squirrel was introduced at Woodland Park, Seattle, in 1925. The original stock (7 pairs) came from Minneapolis, Minnesota. It has spread through the nearby woods, around Green Lake, Cowan Park, and to the woods on the University of Washington Campus. Occasional individuals are found outside the city limits, but the species seems not to spread away from the city. ”

“ The Common Gray Squirrel is remarkable for its beauty and activity, and is common throughout the United States. It is generally found in hickory and chesnut woods, where it feeds on nuts, and lays up a hoard for the winter. It is very easily domesticated, and in captivity is very playful and mischievous. The Great-tailed Squirrel, so called from the length of its tail, is common on the Missouri. It is of a grayish black color, and is very graceful and active. The Line-tail Squirrel inhabits the Missouri country, where it builds its nest in the holes and crevices of rocks. ”

“ America is particularly rich in squirrels. Not counting ground-squirrels or chipmunks, we have over seventy-five different forms on this continent. The widest spread is probably the red-squirrel; but the best known in the United States is the common gray-squirrel. Its gray coat white breast, and immense {142} bushy tail are familiar to all eastern children. It is found in most of the hardwood timber east of the Mississippi and south of the Ottawa River and the State of Maine. Most of the nut trees in the woods of this region were planted by the gray-squirrel. ”

“ My house is in a little grove of oak trees.
Every winter I feed several gray squirrels with nuts.
Every day about noon a big father squirrel comes and scratches on my kitchen window.
There he sits on the sill, watching with bright eyes until I open the window and throw out some nuts.
The more timid squirrels are seated on the ground looking up at the window. They catch the nuts and scamper away with them up to the tops of the trees. But not Furry. He takes nuts from my hands, and holding them in his little finger-claws, gnaws away the shell faster [81] than I can count ten. ”

“ Occasionally in bitter weather, or in early spring (when food is most scarce) , they will furtively creep back to the old squirrel-house—the door of which is always open—to steal the secreted nuts of [13] the Fritz family. And, as proof of their domestic felicity, comes sometimes a mysterious and beautiful young black-tailed squirrel—a tail orange-tipped, with delicate markings of gray.
Is it possible that these two fiery-red beings have produced a creature so unlike themselves? I think it is. Red-haired human parents sometimes have black-haired children, so why should not squirrels? ”

“ He was using only his forepaws, while his hind legs were limp and useless under him, and his brush, that a squirrel usually carries saucily cocked over one shoulder, lay limp upon the ground.
I picked him up carefully; but he squirmed and bit at me savagely, and showed all of that distrust that the wild creature usually has for man. But when he found that I did not intend to hurt him, he became quiet, and I carried him home in my hat. I found an old squirrel-cage in the garret, and put Gray-brush in it, after which I bathed his back in arnica, and gave him corn and buckwheat. ”

“ Hector and Louis remarked that the red and black squirrels never were to be found very near each other. It is a common belief that the red squirrels make common cause with the gray, and beat the larger enemy off the ground. The black squirrel, for a succession of years, was very rarely to be met with on the Plains, while there were plenty of the red and gray in the "oak openings." ”

“ A GROUND-SQUIRREL.—A MOUSE'S NEST.—HUMMING-BIRDS AND THEIR YOUNG ONES.—THE LOCUST-TREE.—MEXICAN WOLVES AND THEIR RETREAT.
I was suddenly awakened by the report of a gun just as the day was breaking. L'Encuerado showed me an enormous squirrel, with a gray back and white belly—a species which never climbs, and is, for this reason, called by Indians amotli (ground-squirrel) . This animal, which lives in a burrow, has all the grace and vivacity of its kind, but it can never be domesticated. ”

“ They cover the ground.”
“Has Squirreltown changed much?” he inquired.
“You would hardly know the place,” answered the gray squirrel. “All our playmates have grown up. Peggy and her mate live in the city, and Polly Blacksquirrel and her mate own the big beech by [169] the brook. Dr. Flyingsquirrel has retired from business on account of his great age. He must be nearly five years old. Your mother, however, is well and happy. Many citizens has Squirreltown. Not one in a hundred leaves it for the country. I—”
“Do you ever visit there?” interrupted Tiny. ”

“ There is a black variety, quite rare, but mating freely with the gray, from which he seems to be distinguished only in color.
The track of the red squirrel may be known by its smaller size. He is more common and less dignified than the gray, and oftener guilty of petty larceny about the barns and grain-fields. He is most abundant in old bark-peelings, and low, dilapidated hemlocks, from which he makes excursions to the fields and orchards, spinning along the tops of the fences, which afford, not only convenient lines of communication, but a safe retreat if danger threatens. ”

“ And these were the sayings: "A really brave bird dares to be afraid of some things," and, "If you go near enough to see the tail of a danger, you may be struck by its head."
[Pg 100]
THE RED SQUIRRELS BEGIN HOUSEKEEPING
The first thing that Mr. Red Squirrel did after coming to the forest and meeting the Gray Squirrel was to look for something to eat. It was not a good season for a stranger who had no hidden store of nuts and seeds to draw upon. The apples and corn were not ripe, and last year's seeds and acorns were nearly gone. ”

“ As to color, it seems as if there are two species, but it is only the difference between the young and the very old. Young squirrels are bright red on the back and sides, with the under parts usually a pure white. Old squirrels are red along the back bone, gray on the sides, and a dirty white below. Some specimens are shot that are nearly all gray. Gunners claim that such squirrels are a cross between the red and the gray, but they are simply old red squirrels.
Dame Nature has been unusually kind to the red squirrel. ”

“ They are considerably larger than a squirrel; the body is about twelve inches long, colored greenish-gray with a white belly; the fore and hind legs are golden yellow, face and ears white, snout black, and eyes large and brown. The hairy, soft tail is black at the tip and a little longer than the body, and serves the animal as a kind of balancing-pole when he takes his jumps. ”