Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 5 (1901).djvu/271

Rh examples of this pelage with which I am acquainted are Sciurus caniceps and S. atrodorsalis. During the greater part of the year these forms wear a dull grey dress, but in the winter months (from December to February) both sexes assume on the back, by moult, a much more brilliant pelage, which in the case of the former is deep orange, and in the case of the latter a glossy black. It is supposed that the assumption of this dress coincides with the pairing season, but I am not aware that this has been actually proved.

Let us now turn again to our European Squirrel. Many depredations on young trees and birds are laid to his account, and I fear it must be acknowledged these accusations are to some extent true. He is in the main, however, a vegetable feeder, living chiefly on beech-mast and acorns, but little in the way of seeds comes amiss to him; and when in the fir-woods the cones are found very much gnawed by his strong and sharp teeth. With one I had in captivity, whose chief food used to be hazel-nuts, the method of eating them was always the same. The nut would be held by the large end, so that the long axis of the narrow portion was transverse to the mouth, when an incision would be made until there was a hole large enough for the insertion of the incisors between the shell and kernel. Into this hole the lower incisors would be placed, and a piece of the shell broken off by a sharp twist of the head; similar actions would be repeated until the whole of the shell was broken off, and then the kernel would be devoured.

Although, as I have said, their food is chiefly, if not entirely, vegetable, my tame one would frequently use his teeth on the furniture, boots, or anything handy, apparently from mere wanton destruction, and when offered fresh twigs with any bark on would invariably strip them of the bark, although it did not appear to be eaten.

In England pairing takes place early in April, and the young are born about midsummer in large nests or "dreys," composed of sticks, on which is collected a large mass of moss neatly hollowed out inside, the opening lying to the side. Several of these "dreys" are said to be built by each pair, and if the young be discovered they are moved as soon as possible to another nest. The male Squirrel remains with the female most