The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-02-02
THE ABUSED CHLCKAREE

s'The red squirrel, or chickaree, has been the subject of wider discussion and more controversies than all the other members of the squirrel tribe, says Arthur F. Rice, in an article on "Four-Footed Folk in the January number of Boys Life, the Boy Scout magazine. "He has many human as well as other enemies, and they give him a bad name and an unsaVory re- putation. He has been called the Ish- mael of the woods, and the buccaneer of the forest, and has been accused of laying up nothing for himself, robbing, the larder of his larger cousins, the gray squirrel, and being a potent sucker of eggs.
 q admit that in one respect he is an Ishmael, for truly the hand of al- most every man, and every boy, too, is against him; but this makes me even the more willing to defend him. I do not know that he needs sympa- thy, for he seems abundantly able to take care of himself, and, although protected by no game laws that 1 know of, manage to thrive and re- produce his species within a stone's throw of his worst enemies. He even .snickers' at them and seems to court 
 larger but more wary relatives are having palpitation of the heart and making frantic haste to get under cover. The saucy little chap is cer- tainIy entitled to admiration, and no true sportsman would put an end to his strenuous life. He has his faults, it is true; he is no respcter of per- sons and would as soon drop cone on your head as on mine; he is said to be a, destroyer of bird nests and their contents; but in so doing he is merely obeying the law of nature and possibly helping to adjust the bal ance she is always striving to pre- serve He is hardly big enough to eat and that is a serious fault in the estimation of some people. He is pugnacious and stands ready at all times to whip gray squirrels much larger than himself, which we must concede is a naughty thing. There are those who rejoice to see small dog beat a big dog and chuckle to see a bantam whip shanghai, yet they cannot see anything commend able in the red squirrel that chases a two-pound gray into an adjoining township; but all men do not see things alike.
 "As for the man who calls my lit tie fellow WOOdSman, the puCcdnSeF of the forest possibly if the tiny warrior could speak he might ask him what he is doing there with a gun, and whether a squirrel has no right to forage on his ancestral pre- serve. If he happened to be a moral and thoughtful squirrel he might ask this man which were better, to take the gray squirrels food or his life. I should like to know if the red squirrel actually does steal the food the gray squirrel has stored. If so, shall have learned something. I was brought up in a country where gray squirrels were almost the only four-footed game, and I spent more time hunting them than my parents thought necessary, but I never yet saw a gray squirrel store food in tree or nest I will not affirm that they do not, because the more learn of the woods and the inhabitants thereof, the more chary l am of making positive assertions respecting them. These transactions may have been carried on when my back was turned, or on Sundays when l was not watching them. I believe that the gray squirrels note the location of fallen nuts, for they dig down to them through the snow with great accuracy; but have never thought they hoarded food for winter use and if am right in this, then the red squirrel cannot be guilty of the lar ceny with which he is charged"