The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1901-07-27

little mother did all in her power to
thwart my purpose. With her front
! paws she raked the little ones beneath
| her, covering them up with the SOFT ce-
dar bark, and did her best to push my
, finger out of the hole. When she found
/ was too strong for her, she took my
finger very gently in her teeth, and
! looked appealingly into my face with
her large black eyes as though begging
nue. not to take her children away. The
plea was too strong to be resisted, and
| left her in peace.
When the little ones We're week
old I managed to get one out to look at
| it, but not without considerable trouble.
I took hold of it's tail, but the mother
Immediately seized it in her teeth, and
pulled it so hard that l was obliged to
let go for fear of hurting 1T. l caught
hold Of it again, but this time the old
one put her paws on it and held 1T firm
and the little one helped her whenever
| he could by scrambling back into the
nest with all his puny strength, At
last, however, managed to get him out
! squealling and struggling and with his
anxious mother following close In his
wake. The only hair visible was that
of his whiskers, which were coming
along nicely
| AS it lay on my hand, the little crea-
ture CROPPED about squeaking, and suck
ing with it's lips, evidently hunting for
the source of it's food supply. The
mother was very anxious, so I laid the
young one down, and in a moment she
MI IN, bar tnath and carried IT
into the nest While I had hold Of the
little fellow he kicked and sqeaked and
struggled. but when his mother picked
him up he evidently knew it, for he
drew in his legs and all, and remained
quite passive.
When the little squirrels were two
weeks old, the gray fur began to show
on the back. Though they We're still
blind, they could cling quite tight to
finger of stick, using their legs, tail and
head in the effort Their eyes opened
when they were exactly four weeks old,
and in two weeks more they began to
and tumbed over one another like kit
venture out of the nest. They romped
tens. but they were always very gentle
in their play.
A short time afterwards I found an
other flying squirrel snest in a tree
stump, but, as the stump was in the
middle of the swamp and surrounded
by water, it was necessary to do some
wading in order to get to it. Again, a
downy woodpecker's nest had been
utilized and put the open of my glove
over the hold and tapped on the stump,
but contrary to calculations the SPUR
rel didn't jump into the glove. | knew
that she was inside, for I saw her go in.
I raped harder, but as there was no
response took my jack-knife and dug
into the tree below the nest. I probed
the latter gently with twig, and the
squirrel Jumped into the glove. Then
foLund why she had stuck SO tight;
there were young ones about two weeks
old in the nest. OF course I determined
to release the mother at once, and
opened the glove for that purpose. In
her excitement she leaped from my
hand, and. not being high enough up,
to sail to the mainland, she fell into
the water whether she had ever had
such an experience before, ] don't
know; but, at any rate, she took IT
quite as a matter of course. she
swan at good speed TO the nearest
tree, perhaps twenty feet away, ran up
It, and, aft resting a moment, as
though to get her breath, away she
sailed to the next one. A day or two
mother had spirited her babies away.
later the nest was empty; the little
This is what almost always happens If
a nest of flying squirrels is disturbed,
no matter how young the little ones
may be.
ERNEST HAROLD BAYNES.