The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1902-02-08
HUNTING BLACK SQUIRRELS.


tie animal is to be met with elsewhere
in this country save in isolated in
stances.
Forty years ago it was common
enough in the upper States of the
middle West fifty years ago it in
habited Virginia, West Virginia and
southern Pennsylvania, and twenty
five years ago it was killed often in
western New York. It's disappear
ance from its northern ranges and
concentration in this comparatively
unsettled part of the world has puz-
zled naturalists, yet the explanation
is simple.
Of all squirrels the black is the
most secretive. 1t dislikes the light.
1t is happy only when in deepest,
darkest thickest woods. It's color
fits it best for concealment in shad-
owS.
1t is not friendly or sociable. 1t
does not consort with other members
of its tribe. 1t is not squirrel of
civilization. 1t does not frequent
trees close to houses; nobody can
make pet of it; it is savage and
solitary.
1t retreated before the advancing
settlements as the wild pigeon re-
treated, and as the prairie chicken is
retreating. AS the woods were felled
and dark places cleared up it went
southwark. 1t was not a good mi
grant and many perished as they
went. Like the red Indian, it num-
bers now only thousandth part of
its former mulitudes. Within the
century it will be extinct.
There are still extensive forests in
America, but except in the Lake Su-
perior region, where the squirrel does
not exist, and near Puget Sound they
are of pine and the black squirrel
does not live in the pine lands. The
trees are too far apart and there is
too much light among them.
The home of this beautiful species
is confined to swamps and semi
swamps where the boles are within
four feet of each other and the branches
interlock and thick vines Chamber and
Spanish moss waves like massive
gray boards. Unlike the northern
squirrel, it never builds its nest in
the forks of branches but always in
hollow trees, where only a snake is
able to get at its young, and is not
roamer.
1t will pass its life within a mile of
the place where it was born. A black
squirrel seen in tree one day will be
found within hundred yards of that
tree on the following day and for
many days to come.
These squirrels are not as active as
the gray or the fox squirrel, trusting
for protection almost wholly to their
ability to hide. They show rare
skill in selecting shelter and are diff
cult to dislodge.
A gray squirrel will get on the
side of tree opposite to man, peer
around the trunk curiously and shift
all day as he shifts. A branch shak-
en- vigorously or stick raped against
the base of tree will start it flying.
Two men by taking each side of
tree may thus slay the gray squirrel
without trouble, but the black chooses
a point high up, where it will be hid
den, save for the tip of one ear or a
waving tail, and will lie there to be
shot at for an hour without moving
Once it has found an am
bush of this kind the hunter can go
up the tree after it, or he can leave it
alone.
There is no squirrel which is so
hard to see. Many of the trunks of
swamp trees are nearly black and
against their bark this animal is prac-
tically indistinguishable. Darting up
a trunk with great rapidity, it will
stop suddenly and fatten out. A
branch intervenes for mo-
ment and the man with the gun has
lost his game.
His only chance then is to secrete
and watch patiently that part
of the tree in which he fancies the
quarry is hiding. After a half hour
he may be rewarded by seeing an ap-
parent knot, excrescence or piece of
smooth bark detach itself and move
upward.
Among squirrel hunters who choose
sides and shoot for prize the gray
counts for five points the fox for
twenty-five and the black for fifty.
This valuation is put on it not be-
cause it is scarce, but because it is
difficult to find and kill.
1t increases here because it is little
The negroes let it alone be-
cause they regard it with the super
stition with which they honor black
cat or a black hen. Because the
squirrel lives in the deep of swamps,
never visits the fields, is not often
seen in sunlight and is ebon from nose
to tail tip, they give it partnership
with the evil one.
If negro driving wagon into
swamp for load of wood sees black
squirrel lope across the dim road, he
will turn back. His reasons for this
are twofold: He is afraid of the
squirrel and would like to postpone
hauling the wood.
The black squirrel, despite asser-
ion to the contrary, is not freak as
S the white squirrel and all other
albinos. 1t is a distinct species, and
mates and brings forth from three to
i've pups as black as itself. There
nave been many instances of the fox
squirrels mixing with the gray, but
he black never mixes.
It is not found in droves and the
presence of one in any part of the
woods is no guarantee that there are
,thers near. Most likely there are
lot. The male associates with the
emale only in the breeding season