We have seen how the provident chipmunk, imitating the bee's industry, lays up a store of nuts and acorns, and spends the winter far underground. The red squirrel is also a hoarder of winter food- but the big gray squirrel will have nothing of their forsight. Sufficient unto the day is the hunger thereof.
That is his motto. He is a true winter" Tramp," picking up a handout wherever he may find it.
So we see him abroad all winter, scampering over the snow, frisking up tree trunks, and peeping around them at us as we take our winter walks in the woods. But he is not aboard merely for exercise. Exercise like his develops an appetite in frosty air; you may depend upon it he is looking for a dinner.
Watch him a little while and see how he gets it. Now he is bounding over the light snow crust, but now he pauses, sniffs repeatedly, and suddenly begins to burrow in the snow. Now he is lost in sight, but if the snow is not to deep, we may still follow his progress by the crackling and quaking of the surface above the tunnel he is making. A little farther on he suddenly reappears, a small pine cone in his teeth. Away he goes to bite off the scales, and devour the seeds.If we approach the spot where he obtained the pine cone under the snow, we shall probably find the surface crust cracked and heaved up in various directions for several feet. The surface breaks indicate the lines of a system of tunnels which our gray forager has made under the snow in his search for and other edibles with which to break his fast.
Happy New Year to all, and Thank You for reading our 483 Outdoor Scene Blogs in 2015, Wayne
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