The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-12-07
SQUIRREL CHARACTERISTICS.

A Mischievous Race of Animals. l 1t may be thought that only those
 animals who are in close companionship
 with human beings develop human
 traits of character, but sport loving
 German has just been telling me of an
 adventure of his with a wild squirrel
 in the forests of Posen. The story H.
 lustrates the monkeylike pranksome-
 ness of the merry, mischievous race that
 I am watching with interest and de-
 light in the beech trees and pines of the
 AIDS My acquaintance had gone out
 very early with the proprietor of the forest on shooting expedition. In the
 early dimness, beneath the thick branch- es of the fir trees, he was hit sharply
 by cone. In the half light he could
 not at first see whence the missile came.
 though he peered about in every direc- ton. Presently another fir cone struck
 him smartly, and he caught sight of
 his assailant-a squirrel! Standing as
 still as he could, he watched the little
 creature throw cone after cone at him
 with excellent aim, holding them be- tween his teeth and swinging them back and forth before f1inging them down.
 I am astonished at the wanton waste and destructiveness of the Alpine suuir- rels. The shower down any quantity of beechmast above and beyond what they eat. Seeing them at their tricks, I must perforce conclude that it is for fun that they go spreading ruin and scattering ban" They strip nut trees of their hazels, neatly dividing some shells to devour the kernels. But they also strew the ground with punches of ripe nuts, in a fashion 4'wanton as drunkenness" The severe utilitarian who should say that the squirrel who flung the cones was only trying to what the sportsman was made of evidently has not watched the bright, furry fel- lows at their sports Cacchination-one of the best words for laughter of sort must heve been modelled on the hilari- ous chucklings of squirrels. Moreover, they grin Qabially), and their eyes twinkle in delight as they gambol and frisk from bough to. bough We have the handsome, dark brown variety here, and also the smaller red kind. A tiny red fellow with broken tall sprang from a branch close to me the other ray. l IclLulACu PCl1GCIly StIll, ana he eyed me curiously from head to foot: did not like me after prolonged exam- ination; sprang upon tree bole little further off, and, with a flourish of his of tail, went down the "off side" so that lost sight of him alto- gether If only any judge could be as wise ae that squirrel looked when he summed me up and found me danger ous we should all cry, "A Daniel come to judgent! yea, Daniel!"
 That cone throwing German squirrel, the sportsman thinks, was only bent on getting rid of an intruder; but should not wonder if he were simply playing 3 practical joke. A friendly Alpine poacher, tells me that squirrel here will have three four or five nests and. not being over refined, my poaching ac- 1uaintance mentions the "fleas'' Ca word which ie not permissible in polite so- ,iety in Italy) in connection with the squirrels frequent changes of domi- ,ile. He ayers that when the 'pulex absolutely swarms in one nest he owner moves on to another, and hen another till the parasitic colony n the first abode has died down. Even very poor human inhabitants of these valleys have two or three cha1ets at different elevations, but migrations are,
 believe, guided chiefly by agriculture Il siderations.-London News.