A famous naturalist, describing this little creature, says that it is one of the principal ornaments of a forest. In quiet, fine weather it is incessantly active, keeping as much as possible to the trees, which at all times afford it food and cover. Occasionally it will deliberately descend a tree, run to another tree and climb that; doing this often in pure playfulness; for it need not touch the ground at all, unless it wishes to do so. He calls it the monkey of the woods of temperate climes, and it is possessed of many attributes which remind one of that capricious inhabitant of the warmer zone. There are probably few mammals which are possessed of such constant briskness and remain for so short a time in the same place as the squirrel does in tolerably fair weather. It is ever going from tree to tree, from top to top, from branch to branch; and even on the ground it is anything but clumsy or out of place. It never walks or trots, but always proceeds in longer or shorter bounds, and so quickly that a dog can hardly overtake it, and a human being has to give up the pursuit after a short time. "It glides up even the smoothest trees with wonderful ease and speed. The long, sharp claws on the toes stand it in good stead, for it hooks them into the bark, all four feet at once. Then it takes a running start for another leap and darts further upward; but one bound succeeds another with such rapidity that the ascent proceeds uninterruptedly, and looks as if the creature glided up the tree. Usually it ascends to the top of the tree without pausing, not infrequently reaching the highest point; then it goes out on one of the horizontal branches and generally jumps to the tip of a branch of another tree, covering in these jumps distances of four or five yards, always in a downward direction. How necessary the bushy tail is for leaping has been demonstrated by cruel experiments, which consisted in cutting off the tail of some captive squirrel. It was then seen that the mutilated creature could not leap half so far as one having a tail. The squirrel is an excellent swimmer, though it does not go into the water willingly." The squirrel eats fruit or seeds, buds, twigs, shells, berries, grain, and mushrooms. The seeds, buds, and young shoots of fir and pine trees form its principal food. It bites pine cones off at the stem, comfortably sits down on its haunches, lifts the cone to its mouth with its fore-paws, and turning it constantly around, it bites off one little scale after another with its sharp teeth, until the kernel is reached, which it takes out with its tongue. Hazel nuts are a favorite dainty with it. Bitter kernels, like almonds, for instance, are poison to it; two bitter almonds are sufficient to kill it.