Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-12-26

Intrusion Of Another Home Brought
. 49, End to" His ~,
|, Career. -
: i ...stc..,.-:-- p--5-... -...s-
Not far from where live red squirrel
had his winter nest. In hollow apple tree,
near the edge of wood 1t was a warm
nest, made of soft brown bark, which the
Industrious little fellow Had stripped from
the trunks Of half dozen CEDAR trees In
the fall He used this nest for two pur-
poses--to sleep in at night and to hide in
when he was closely pressed by an enemy:
He was seldom there In the. day time. for
he was as hardy as a polar bear, and was
abroad In almost all kinds of weather. The
snow was never too deep for him. nor the
air too biting cold. Often, while the gray
squirrels were SO sound asleep in their tree
top nests that you would almost have had
to pinch them to make them wake up, fol-
lowed the trail of my little red squirrel
from tree to tree, and along the walls, and
fence rails, until I have found him perched
on the top of farm gate post eating a
hickory nut with great acomposure, while
the wind fairly whistled through the long
hair of his bushy TALL which tried in vain
Sometimes when there was no snow on
the ground, the first intimation I would
have of his presence would be an irritable,
chattering cry such as red squirrels are In
the habit of utterfng when they are dis
pleased over anything. 1t might be an
owl, doing in some dark pine tree, which
was the cause Of his irritability, or 1t might
be hawk. sailing In broad circles over
head; but, as often as not, the simple fact
Of my presence in that section Of the woods
was enough to disturb his peace OF mind to
such an extent that he would burst into a
torrent of abusive chattering, to which he
would keep time by stamping his leet and
twitching his tail.
Provident Traits.
True to hts family characteristics, he was
a provident little fellow, and during the
autumn he always gathered and stored
away enough nuts and seeds to last him
through the longest winter he was ever
likely to see. In the year of which / write
he had made no exception and he had sew
eral piles of nuts hidden In stunps and I'M
der logs in the vicinity of his home. But
unfortunately for him. a band of thought
less boys. roaming the woods, accidentally
came upon one of his boards, and, in noisy
Gee, began to fill their pockets with their
plumber. The presence of these nuts in
itself suggested there might be more in the
vicinity, and before dark tthe urchins had
SO thoroughly secured that corner of the
every nut which the squirrel had been at
such pains to gather.u Poor fellow he had
very hard time ofoit for the next few
days, trying in vain to borrow or steal
from some of his brethren3 But they were
all too selfish to loan or too wide-awake to
be robbed, and drove-the hungry one away
with much abusive chatter. and he in des-
peration stole repeatedlycfrom the store of
a woodmouse But the latter was too wise
to allow that sort of thineoto continue and
removed her provisions to a hole under a
rock where the squirrel could no longer get
at them. After that he; got very hungry in
deed. sI~ rs Z
A Meal Station.
Outside of my sthds s1wtpdow there is
placed every winter "a large wooden tray
filled with canary gsee6sd bread crumbs,
shredded saet and craekedindts.e and many
hungry birds come there to get their meals
One morning. as looked through the win
dow. I saw not a. single bird, but thin red
squirrel. sitting right in the middle of the
tray and eating as Jockeys eat at the end
of a racing season. When 1 approac hed he
seemed alarmed but, as did not attempt
to drive him away, he soon lost all appear
ance of fear. and continued to stuff himself
with the best the tray afforded. I decided
to let him stay as long as he would. but
when / found him there again the next
morning l was obliged to put up another
tray for the birds. in a place where the
squirrel couldn't reach it, The four footed
pensioner grew holder as the increasing ro-
tundity of his body pressed the wrinkles
out of his sl1in,. and he kept his seat even
II opened the window. At last he became
almost arrogant, and scolded If appeared
at the window while he was feeding But
the laws of hospitality. though made Of
elastic. may be stretched but not COM
pressed and, as he chose to stay all winter,
he stayed. "a
Watching the Robins
In the SDrinp ;r1e
back. and among them a pair of robins,
which nested in an apple tree in MY gar
den. All went well until the young birds
were Matched, when one day heard the
angry voices OF the parent birds. and
looked out to see what the trouble was.
The mother robin was seated on a low
branch, and, with lowered wings and tall
was screaming loudly at some object be-
low her, apparently on the trunk of the
tree. Presently she darted down. with her
crest raised and her bill open and ready
for business and then caught sight of the
rascally red squirrel, who scurried round
the trunk to avoid her. Round and round
she chased him. until he seemed to lose
MS presence of mind and leaped to the
ground He started across the grass at full
speed, but she was after him like a fury,
and he squeaked In abject terror as he fed
across the road and into the woods, where
the bird gave up the chase and returned
rrffied, but triumphant
Had he profited by this experience, the
red squirrel might have been living today,
but one morning he wandered into the gar
den of a neighbor who was studying a pair
of nesting redstarts. THE squirrel found
the nest, too, and a moment afterward he
was seated near 1t, with one Of the eggs
in his paws. But he never finished that
egg, for my neighbor has gun, and he
vaiues redstarts higher than red squirrels.
ERNEST HAROLD BAYNES.