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Red Squirrel — Part 2
Images coming soon.
But it is no longer a matter of hoarding with red squirrels, each meal as it comes is now his rule, trusting that the abundance of summer is not far off.
In tapping the maple they gnaw saucer-shaped cavities in the upper side of a branch and drink the sap that fills them, coming back a dozen times a day for the sweet refreshment.
They are hearty meat-eaters at all times, though beyond robbing birds' nests they are anything but successful hunters. But they follow the more successful hunters to take advantage of their luck, and annoy the trapper by stealing the bait from his traps. Most red squirrels are not satisfied with a single habitation. They must have an underground hole beneath the roots of a tree at all events, and in addition either a nest among the branches, or in a hollow tree, or both.
When they can get possession of the deserted nest of a hawk or crow, they roof it over with moss and strips of bark and pine needles and have a snug home for all weathers.
In most pine groves there are more such nests occupied by red squirrels than by the original owners.
At other times they arrange a platform of twigs in a crotch or against the trunk, and supported by small branches, build their nest on this, using wet moss and cedar bark and thatching it over with pine needles. They also make nests of soft grass in hollow logs and stumps or beneath a pile of wood. Red squirrels are most erratic when it comes to laying up stores for winter, sometimes they will pack away half a bushel of nuts or apples in a hollow tree, but often it is two or three in one place and a dozen in another.
Holes beneath stumps and flat stones are favourite hiding places of theirs. At other times they make little piles of nuts on the ground and cover them up with leaves, probably intending to transfer them to safer hiding when the rush of harvesting is over. They will also wedge nuts, one in a place, in the forks of small branches, and in cracks in the bark.
Varieties of the Red Squirrel
1. Northern Red Squirrel. Sciurus hudsonicus gymnicus Bangs. Description and range as above.
2. Southern Red Squirrel. S. hudsonicus loquax Bangs. Larger and brighter red in winter with under parts always pure white.
3. Labrador Red Squirrel. S. hudsonicus (Erxleben). Red colour in winter paler, fringe on tail yellowish or gray, lower parts decidedly gray.