The Frémont squirrel is the most audacious and wide-awake of wild folk among whom I have lived. He appears to be ever up and doing, is intensely in earnest at all times and strongly inclined to take a serious view of things. Both the looks and manners of Mr. Frémont, Sciurus fremonti, proclaim for him a close relationship with the Douglas squirrel of California and the Pacific coast, the squirrel immortalized by John Muir.
His most popular name is "Pine Squirrel," and he is found through the pine and spruce forests of the Rocky Mountains and its spur ranges, between the foothills and timber-line; a vertical2, or altitudinal, range of more than a mile. He assumes and asserts ownership of the region occupied. If you invade his forests he will see you first and watch you closely. Often he does this with simple curiosity, but more often he is irritated by your presence and issues a chatter3[Pg 324]ing protest while you are still at long range. If you continue to approach after this proclamation, he may come down on a low limb near by and give you as torrential and as abusive a "cussing" as trespasser4 ever received from irate5 owner.
Yet he is most ridiculously small to do all that he threatens to do. Of course he brags6 and bluffs7, but these become admirable qualities in this little fellow who will ably, desperately8 defend his domain9 against heavy odds10 of size or numbers. Among the squirrels of the world he is one of the smallest. He is clad in gray and his coat perceptibly darkens in winter. His plumy tail, with a fringe of white hairs, is as airy as thistledown. He always appears clean and well-groomed.
Though in many ways a grizzly11 in miniature and apparently12 as untamable as a tiger, the Frémont quickly responds to kind advances. Near my cabin a number became so tame that they took peanuts from my hand, sometimes even following me to the cabin door for this purpose.
These squirrels occasionally eat mushrooms,[Pg 325] berries, and the inner bark of pine twigs13, but they depend almost entirely14 upon conifer nuts or seeds, the greater part of these coming from the cones16 of pines and spruces. They start harvesting the cones in early autumn, so as to harvest all needed food for winter before the dry, ripened17 cones open and empty their tiny seeds. Deftly18 they dart19 through the tree-tops almost as swiftly as a hummingbird20 and as utterly21 indifferent to the dangers of falling. With polished blades of ivory they clip off the clinging, fruited cones. Happy, hopeful, harvest-home sounds the cones make as they drop and bounce on the dry floor of the autumn woods. Often a pair work together, one reaping the cones with his ivory cutters and the other carrying them home, each being a sheaf of grain of Nature's bundling.
When harvesting alone, Mr. Frémont is often annoyed by the chipmunks22. These little rascals23 will persist in stealing the fallen cones, despite glaring eyes, irate looks, and deadly threats from the angry harvester above. When finally he comes tearing down to carry his terrible ultimatums24 into effect, the frightened chipmunks make[Pg 326] haste to be off, but usually some one is overtaken and knocked sprawling25 with an accompanying rapid fire of denunciation.
THE HOME OF THE FRéMONT SQUIRREL THE HOME OF THE FRéMONT SQUIRREL
On the Little Cimarron
One day I watched a single harvester who was busily, happily working. He cut off a number of cones before descending26 to gather them. These scattered27 widely like children playing hide-and-seek. One hid behind a log; another bounced into some brush and stuck two feet above the ground, while two others scampered28 far from the tree. The squirrel went to each in turn without the least hesitation29 or search and as though he had been to each spot a dozen times before.
A squirrel often displays oddities both in the place selected for storing the cones and the manner of their arrangement. Usually the cones are wisely hoarded30 both for curing and for preservation31, by being stored a few in a place. This may be beneath a living tree or in an open space, placed one layer deep in the loose forest litter scarcely below the general level of the surface. They are also stowed both in and upon old logs and stumps32. Sometimes they are placed in little nests with a half-dozen or so cones each; often [Pg 327] there are a dozen of these in a square yard. This scattering34 of the sap-filled cones, together with the bringing of each into contact with dry foreign substances, secures ventilation and assists the sappy cones to dry and cure; if closely piled, many of these moist cones would be lost through mould and decay.
The numbers of cones hoarded for winter by each squirrel varies with different winters and also with individuals. I have many times counted upwards35 of two hundred per squirrel. During years of scanty36 cone15-crop the squirrels claim the entire crop. The outcry raised against the squirrel for preventing far extension, by consuming all the seeds, is I think in the same class as the cry against the woodpecker; it appears a cry raised by those who see only the harm without the accompanying good. The fact is that many of the cones are never eaten; more are stored than are wanted; some are forgotten, while others are left by the death of the squirrel. Thus many are stored and left uneaten in places where they are likely to germinate37 and produce trees. John Muir too believes that the Doug[Pg 328]las and Frémont squirrels are beneficial to forest-extension.
Commonly the cones are stored in the same place year after year. In dining, also, the squirrel uses a log, limb, or stump33 year after year. Thus bushels of the slowly decaying scales and cobs accumulate in one place. It is not uncommon38 for these accumulations to cover a square rod to the depth of two feet.
I know of a few instances in which squirrels stowed cones in the edge of a brook39 beneath the water. One of these places being near my cabin, I kept track of it until the cones were used, which was in the spring. In early autumn the cones were frozen in, and there they remained, unvisited I think, until the break-up of the ice in April. Then a squirrel appeared, to drag them from their cold storage. He carried each by to his regular dining-place. Clasping the cone vertically40, base up, in his fore1 paws, he snipped41 off the scales and ate the seeds beneath in regular order, turning the cone as he proceeded as though it were an ear of corn and he were eating the kernels42.[Pg 329]
I have often waited to see a squirrel go for something to eat after a snowstorm. This he did in a matter-of-fact way. Without hunting or hesitation he went hopping43 across the snow to a spot immediately above his supplies, where he at once pawed his way down into the snow and came up with a cone.
In rambling44 the woods I have often heard these squirrels barking and "chickareeing" with wild hilarity45, apparently from the pure joy of living. Then again they proclaimed my distant approach, or presence, with unnecessary vigor46. The energetic protest they make against the trespasser in their woods, is often, if not always, taken by big game as a warning. Generally on hearing this the game will be all alert for some seconds, and occasionally will move off to a more commanding position. Sometimes birds will stop and listen when this tree-top sentinel shouts warnings which have often saved big game from being shot. Most hunters hate this squirrel.
There are brief periods in winter when these squirrels disappear for days at a time. The kind[Pg 330] of weather does not appear to be a determining factor in this. During this disappearance47 they probably take a hibernating48 sleep; anyway, I have in a few cases seen them so soundly asleep that the fall and fracture of their tree did not awaken49 them. They sometimes live, temporarily at least, in holes in the ground, but the home is usually in a hollow limb or a cavern50 in a tree-trunk well toward the top of the tree. Commonly four young ones are brought forth51 at a birth. Cunning, happy midgets they are when first beginning their acquaintance with the wooded world, and taking sun baths on a high limb of their house tree.
Just how long they live no one appears to know. As pets they have been kept for ten years. A pair lived near my cabin for eight years, then disappeared. Whether they migrated or met a violent death, I never knew. There was another pair in the grove52 that I kept track of through eleven years. This grove was a wedge-shaped one of about ten acres that stood between two brooks53. With but few exceptions, the trees were lodge-pole pine. My acquaintance[Pg 331] with the pair began one day in early autumn. Both set up such a wild chatter as I approached the grove that I first thought that something was attacking them. Seated upon a log close to the tree which they occupied, I watched them for three or four hours. They in turn watched me. Failing to dislodge me by vehement54 denunciation, they quieted down and eyed me with intense curiosity. I sat perfectly55 still. Evidently they were greatly puzzled and unable to make out what I was and what of all things on earth it could be that I wanted. With beady eyes they stared at me from a number of positions in several trees. Occasionally in the midst of this silent, eager eying one would break out in a half-repressed and drawling bark that was unconsciously, nervously56 repeated at brief intervals57.
The next day they silently allowed me to take a seat. After a brief stare they grew bold with curiosity and descended58 to the earth for a closer investigation59. Pausing for a sharp look, both suddenly exploded with wild chatter and fled with a retchy barking to the tree-tops. In less than a[Pg 332] month they took peanuts from my fingers. They were easily terrified by a loud noise or sudden movement. One day an acquaintance came to see me while I was in the grove with the squirrels. By way of heralding60 his approach, he flung a club which fell with a crash upon a brush pile alongside these most nervous fellows. They fled in terror, and it was two or three days before they would come near me again.
One year the grove cone-crop was a total failure. As a result, Mr. and Mrs. Frémont temporarily abandoned their old home and moved to new quarters on a mountainside about half a mile distant. The day they moved I was by the brook, watching a water-ouzel, when they chanced to cross on a fallen log near-by. In passing, one paused to give a hasty, half-glad, half-frightened, chattery61 bark of recognition. They hastened across the grassy62 open beyond as though they felt themselves in danger when out of the woods.
They made a home in an old snag, using places that were, I think, formerly63 used by woodpeckers. The afternoon of their arrival they[Pg 333] commenced to harvest cones, which were abundant on the spruce trees around them. I often wondered if they made a preliminary trip and located a food-supply before moving, or if they simply started forth and stopped at the first favorable place.
The following summer they returned to their old quarters in the grove. The first time that I saw them they were sitting upon a log daintily making a breakfast of fresh mushrooms. They often ate the inner bark of pine twigs, and once I saw one of them eating wild raspberries. I never saw these, or any Frémont squirrel, robbing or trying to rob a bird's nest, and as I have never noticed a bird disturbed by their presence, I believe they are not guilty of this serious offense64, as are most kinds of squirrels.
Through eleven years I occasionally fed them. Apparently full-grown at the time of our first meeting, they were active and agile65 to the last. After eleven years they showed but few and minor66 signs of aging.
One was shot by a gun-carrying visitor. While I was dismissing the gunner, my atten[Pg 334]tion was attracted by the wailing67 of her mate when he found her lifeless body. His grief was most pitiful; among wild birds and animals I have never seen anything so pathetic. Almost humanly he stared at his mate; he fondled her and tried to coax68 her back to life, at times almost pleading and wailing. When I carried her off for burial he sat moveless and dazed. The following day I searched the grove, whistling and calling, but I never saw him again.
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1
fore
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| adv.在前面；adj.先前的；在前部的；n.前部 | |
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vertical
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| adj.垂直的，顶点的，纵向的；n.垂直物，垂直的位置 | |
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chatter
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| vi.／n.喋喋不休；短促尖叫；(牙齿)打战 | |
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trespasser
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| n.侵犯者；违反者 | |
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irate
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| adj.发怒的，生气 | |
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brags
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| v.自夸，吹嘘( brag的第三人称单数 ) | |
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bluffs
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| 恐吓( bluff的名词复数 )； 悬崖； 峭壁 | |
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desperately
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| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
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domain
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| n.(活动等)领域，范围；领地，势力范围 | |
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odds
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| n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别 | |
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grizzly
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| adj.略为灰色的，呈灰色的；n.灰色大熊 | |
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12
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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13
twigs
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| 细枝，嫩枝( twig的名词复数 ) | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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cone
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| n.圆锥体，圆锥形东西，球果 | |
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cones
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| n.（人眼）圆锥细胞；圆锥体( cone的名词复数 )；球果；圆锥形东西；（盛冰淇淋的）锥形蛋卷筒 | |
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17
ripened
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| v.成熟，使熟( ripen的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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deftly
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| adv.灵巧地，熟练地，敏捷地 | |
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dart
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| v.猛冲，投掷；n.飞镖，猛冲 | |
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20
hummingbird
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| n.蜂鸟 | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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chipmunks
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| n.金花鼠( chipmunk的名词复数 ) | |
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rascals
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| 流氓( rascal的名词复数 )； 无赖； （开玩笑说法）淘气的人（尤指小孩）； 恶作剧的人 | |
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24
ultimatums
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| 最后通牒( ultimatum的名词复数 ) | |
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25
sprawling
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| adj.蔓生的，不规则地伸展的v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的现在分词 )；蔓延；杂乱无序地拓展；四肢伸展坐着（或躺着） | |
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26
descending
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| n. 下行 adj. 下降的 | |
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27
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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28
scampered
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| v.蹦蹦跳跳地跑，惊惶奔跑( scamper的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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29
hesitation
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| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
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30
hoarded
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| v.积蓄并储藏（某物）( hoard的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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preservation
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| n.保护，维护，保存，保留，保持 | |
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32
stumps
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| （被砍下的树的）树桩( stump的名词复数 )； 残肢； （板球三柱门的）柱； 残余部分 | |
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stump
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| n.残株，烟蒂，讲演台；v.砍断，蹒跚而走 | |
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34
scattering
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| n.[物]散射；散乱，分散；在媒介质中的散播adj.散乱的；分散在不同范围的；广泛扩散的；（选票）数量分散的v.散射(scatter的ing形式)；散布；驱散 | |
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35
upwards
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| adv.向上，在更高处...以上 | |
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36
scanty
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| adj.缺乏的，仅有的，节省的，狭小的，不够的 | |
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37
germinate
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| v.发芽；发生；发展 | |
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38
uncommon
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| adj.罕见的，非凡的，不平常的 | |
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39
brook
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| n.小河，溪；v.忍受，容让 | |
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40
vertically
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| adv.垂直地 | |
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41
snipped
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| v.剪( snip的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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42
kernels
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| 谷粒( kernel的名词复数 )； 仁； 核； 要点 | |
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43
hopping
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| n. 跳跃 动词hop的现在分词形式 | |
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44
rambling
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| adj.[建]凌乱的，杂乱的 | |
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45
hilarity
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| n.欢乐；热闹 | |
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46
vigor
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| n.活力，精力，元气 | |
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47
disappearance
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| n.消失，消散，失踪 | |
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48
hibernating
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| （某些动物）冬眠，蛰伏( hibernate的现在分词 ) | |
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49
awaken
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| vi.醒，觉醒；vt.唤醒，使觉醒，唤起，激起 | |
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50
cavern
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| n.洞穴，大山洞 | |
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51
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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52
grove
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| n.林子，小树林，园林 | |
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53
brooks
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| n.小溪( brook的名词复数 ) | |
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54
vehement
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| adj.感情强烈的；热烈的；(人)有强烈感情的 | |
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55
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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56
nervously
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| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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57
intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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58
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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59
investigation
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| n.调查，调查研究 | |
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60
heralding
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| v.预示( herald的现在分词 )；宣布（好或重要） | |
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61
chattery
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| 养猫的处所 | |
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62
grassy
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| adj.盖满草的；长满草的 | |
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63
formerly
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| adv.从前，以前 | |
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64
offense
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| n.犯规，违法行为；冒犯，得罪 | |
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65
agile
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| adj.敏捷的，灵活的 | |
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66
minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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67
wailing
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| v.哭叫，哀号( wail的现在分词 )；沱 | |
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coax
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| v.哄诱，劝诱，用诱哄得到，诱取 | |
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