The First Is The Fox-Squirrel,
So Call'd, Because Of His Large Size, Which Is The Bigness Of A Rabbet
Of Two Or Three Months Old.
His Colour is commonly gray;
yet I have seen several pied ones, and some reddish, and black;
his chiefest Haunts are in the Piny Land, where the Almond-Pine grows.
There he provides his Winter-Store; they being a Nut
that never fails of bearing.
He may be made tame, and is very good Meat,
when killed.
{Small gray Squirrel.}
The next sort of Squirrel is much of the Nature of the English,
only differing in Colour. Their Food is Nuts (of all sorts
the Country affords) and Acorns. They eat well; and, like the Bear,
are never found with young.
{Flying-Squirrel.}
This Squirrel is gray, as well as the others. He is the least of the Three.
His Food is much the same with the small gray Squirrels. He has not Wings,
as Birds or Bats have, there being a fine thin Skin cover'd with Hair,
as the rest of the parts are. This is from the Fore-Feet to the Hinder-Feet,
which is extended and holds so much Air, as buoys him up,
from one Tree to another, that are greater distances asunder,
than other Squirrels can reach by jumping or springing. He is made very tame,
is an Enemy to a Cornfield, (as all Squirrels are) and eats only
the germinating Eye of that Grain, which is very sweet.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 179 of 377
Words from 51622 to 51871
of 110081
