The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-12-02
THE WAYS OF CAPTIVE SQUIRRELS
Gray, Fox, Flying, Ground and Chip
munIS Squirrels.
Woods Hutchinson in Contemporary r

munk squirrels.
Woods Hutchinson in Contemporary Re-
view.
II was my good fortune to be born into
family of animal lovers My father and
his brothers. in their boyhood, had gath
cred in walf of father after wait of fur.
until a menagerie was accumulated, which
was the delight of every urchin In the
sleepy little Yorkshire town. Such tastes
naturally led them 10 the colonies: Africa.
New zeaiand the Americas opened and
swallowed them up; and when our turn
of the wander fever came the chief charm
of the adventure for the younger genera
ton lay In the prospect of exchanging our
family of rabbits, guinea pigs, pet lambs
and pigeons for real wild animals"
No sooner were we settled in the broad
valley OF the Father of Waters, who is
best known by his Indian name Missis-
sippi than we began our mastering. Our
first venture was in the direction of
squirrels, and we soon had a fine assort-
ment on hand, gray squirrels. foX-squir-
rels, hying-squirrels ground-squirrels
chpmunl1s. The ground-squirrels, known
in the vernacular as "grinnles,' we cap
tured by the ruthlessly simple method of
carrying water in a bucket from the
creek and pouring it down their round lit
tie waterproof holes. until the burrow
was full to the mounth, and its occupant
came up. dripping and choking, literally
drowned out"
This amusement would l think, have
been discouraged by our more civilized
elders, had it not been that "grinny' is
a sad rogue among the crops; not that his
"sma request would have been noticed
in harvest time. but that he insisted on
taking 1t in seed time. The Indian cora
is not sown but carefully planted in
- oil adra
and his larger relative gopher (pouched
raO viii burrow straight down the whole
length of row in the loose soil, taking
every grain. Not even soaking the gr lin
in kerosene would discourage him, so that
almost every county offers a reward for
his little striped scalp, and many day
did we boys labor with a hoe and bag
of seed-corn slung round our waist, filling
up the gaps in the rows made by MS RAJ
ages They were not satisfactory pets,
as hey could gnaw out of anything short
of a tin deed-box, and were also shy and
bad tempered; which, considering the
method of their capture, was perhaps not
unnatural.
The beauties of the family were the fly
| ing squirrels-little balls Of soft, velvety,
\ gray far, with the great, gentle black eyes
| Of most night feeders, and tiny delicate
| paws Unfortunately, our enjoyment OF
| them pretty nearly ended here. Not know
| ing that they were night animals by habit,
| we tried to make friends with them in the
| daylight and our well-meant attentions
| were sharply repulsed, as our fingers ana
| thumbs bore eloquent testimony for days.
| At best extremely shy and timid, even In
| the dark. to be walked out of then beauty
| sleep in the glare of day, to play with
| cl1lrnsy-pawed hulks of giants, was more
| than their little nerves could stand, and
| they did precisely what we all do when
| the terror comes upon us-plt at every
| thing they could reach.
Another misunderstanding had sadder
| consequences. According to our Noachian
| standards of classification they were squir-
| rels and SQUIRRELS in all those compendia
| of misinformation yclept Natural History
| for the Young" were unanimously declar-
| ed to live upon nuts and grains. Accord
/ ingly they were supplied with liberal
| diet of such dainties together with bread,
| milk and fruit in blissful ignorance of
| the fact that they were mainly insect-eat-
| ers They drank the milk eagerly, though
/ we could not tempt them TO touch any
| of the other things, and for a few days
| did very well on this and a nibble or two
| at the bread. Wearying, however, of this
| harmless but embarrassing diet they held
i a council of war. Next morning, instead
/ of five squirrels in the cage, only four
:. were to be found. Search was made for
a hole in the floor or walls, but none was
| to be found, and IL was soon concluded
/ that the missing one had managed to
| squeeze himself through between the bars,
as the little fellows are extraordinary
| supple and when their wings are spread
look no thicker than a hve-inch founder.
For two days the four were In excellent
| spirits; then they began to nope again
and 10! next morning there We're only
three But the spirits Of the three were
| hilarious This excited suspicion. and
| search was made. Under the bedding in
one corner of the cage was found the gray
head of the squirrel, end in the sleeping
box the partially devoured body of an
| other. The murder was out. The poor
little rascals had got so desperate on an
| excessive milk diet and any one who
has been put on one will appreciate their
feelings-that like shipwrecked sailors,
they decided that 1t was eXpedient for one
man 70 die for the people. IL Is not like
w that tsley held any council OF war on
the matter--only men are cold-blooded
enough to do that; II probably began in a
quarrel which the first sight of blood
turned into a massacre. That ended the
tanning experiments on this branch Of the
sauirrel family; the survivors were
promptly set at liberty, and, though we
! caught many others afterward, when cut
ting uD hollow logs for firewood In the
! winter time, we never attempted TO keep
/ them captive.
| The statements OF the average book of
natural history as to the food range OF
SQUIRRELS are much in need of modifica-
ton. Although the bulk of their diet is
nuts, acorns and grains, yet they are by
no means the blameless vegetarians they
are usually stated to be. In fact these
merry little chatterers have their failings
ARE quite human, Indeed. They are as
fond OF eggs as a darby is Of chickens
and even do not object to them after they
are Matched. If the parent bird is at a safe
distance. have seen a red squirrel beat
en- within an inch OF his life by a right
.Iurf,. nail Of 10