(_For illustration, see page 547_)
Three species of tree squirrels inhabit the varied forests of eastern
North America, each having its marked individuality expressed in color,
size, and habits. All occupy a wide territory with varying climatic
conditions, to which each species has responded by becoming modified
into a series of geographic races, or subspecies. The red and the gray
squirrels have already been described and it remains to give an account
of the largest and in some respects the most remarkable of the three,
the fox squirrel.
No other species of North American mammal can show such an
extraordinary contrast in color among its subspecies as that between
the rusty yellowish animal of the Ohio and upper Mississippi Valleys,
and the handsome blackish one of the Southeastern States, both of which
are pictured in the accompanying illustration.
The distribution of the fox squirrel is limited to the forested parts
of the Eastern States. There it ranges from the Atlantic coast to the
border of the Great Plains, and from southern New York and the upper
Mississippi Valley southward to Florida, the Gulf coast, and across the
lower Rio Grande into extreme northeastern Mexico.
Variations in the character of the haunts of the different subspecies
of this squirrel almost equal their differences in color. In the
upper Mississippi and Ohio Valleys the rusty-colored race frequents
the upland woods, where the nut-bearing hickory trees characterize
the forests. In the South the dark-colored squirrels have more varied
homes, either amid the live oaks draped in long Spanish moss, in the
mysterious cypress forests of the swamps, or out in the uplands among
the southern pines.
[Illustration: RING-TAILED CAT
_Bassariscus astutus_]
[Illustration: OREGON MOLE
_Scapanus townsendi_]
[Illustration: STAR-NOSED MOLE
_Condylura cristata_]
In early days fox squirrels were plentiful, but never equaled the
numbers of the gray squirrel. They appear always to have been more
closely attached to their own district, for we have no records of the
great migrations so notable in the other species.
Fox squirrels are not only distinguished from gray squirrels by their
color, but are also nearly twice their size, commonly attaining a
weight of two and sometimes nearly three pounds. They are the strongest
and most heavily proportioned of all American squirrels. A deliberation
of movement going with heaviness of body is in marked contrast to the
graceful agility of most other tree squirrels. On the ground they walk
with a curiously awkward, waddling gait, and even when hard pressed
climb trees with none of the dashing quickness shown by other species.
They often move about on the ground by a series of bounds, and at such
times, with broad, feathery tails undulating in the air, present a most
graceful and attractive sight.
Fox and gray squirrels occupy the same districts throughout most of
their ranges, but often become so segregated locally that the grays may
be found almost exclusively along bottom-lands and the fox squirrels on
the higher ridges, but there is no hard and fast separation of haunts
and the two forms usually share the same woodlands.
Much time is spent by fox squirrels on the ground searching for food.
When danger approaches, in place of promptly taking refuge in a tree,
as is a common habit with most tree squirrels, they retreat along
the ground, mounting a stump or log now and then, to look back at a
suspected intruder, whose footsteps they can hear at a long distance.
If the hunter is without a dog they may run away and be lost. A
dog soon forces them up a tree and if a knot-hole or other hollow
is available they at once take refuge in it. Otherwise they hide
skillfully in bunches of leaves high in the top or lie flat on a limb
or against the trunk, slyly moving to keep on the opposite side as the
hunter draws near. In the Mississippi Valley during the crisp days
when the hickory nuts are falling and the trees are decked in all the
glories of autumn foliage, few sports afield yield more pleasurable
sensations than fox-squirrel hunting.
The fox squirrels become fatter than most of their kind and their flesh
is not so dry, although all furnish appetizing meat. Owing to their
size and the quality of their flesh, they have been such desirable game
animals that with the constantly growing number of hunters and the
destruction of forests they have already disappeared from large areas
where formerly abundant and are in real danger of extermination in the
not-distant future. They are among the most notable and attractive of
the forest animals in the Eastern States, and before it is too late
every effort should be made to protect them from overshooting. With
reasonable conservation they will continue to thrive and keep some of
the old-time primitive spirit in our woods. Formerly they had the same
predilection as the gray squirrel for the farmers’ corn fields and were
under the ban, but their numbers are now so reduced that they give
little trouble in this way. In some city parks where they have been
introduced, they soon become tame and do well, except that in losing
their fear of man they become subject to many accidents.
Fox squirrels, like many others of their kind, have homes both in
knot-holes or other hollows in tree trunks, and in bulky nests of
sticks and leaves high up among the branches. Both kinds of nesting
places are often located in the same tree, the owner living in the
outside nest in warm weather and retiring to the shelter of the hollow
trunk in severe weather or to escape an enemy. The young, two to four
in number, are usually born in March or April, and it is not definitely
known whether there is a second litter. These squirrels have a barking
call as well as several other rather deep-toned chucking notes.
They are as omnivorous as any of their kind, eating many kinds of
nuts, seeds, fruits, mushrooms, insects, birds, birds’ eggs, and other
flesh food when available. The principal nuts in their haunts are
hickory-nuts, beechnuts, walnuts, pecan nuts, and the seeds of pines
and cypresses. Toward the end of summer and in fall they work busily
gathering and storing food for winter in hollow trees, in old logs,
about the roots of trees, and in any other snug place where it may be
kept safely until needed. Many single nuts are buried here and there in
little pits three or four inches deep dug in the soft surface of the
earth under the trees. These scattered stores are located when needed
by the acute sense of smell which the owners possess.
=THE ABERT SQUIRREL= (=Sciurus aberti= and its subspecies)
(_For illustration, see page 550_)