Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 109, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 May 1919 — Squirrels and Their Nests. [ARTICLE]

Squirrels and Their Nests.

The gray squirrel makes a nest of leaves. He is more or less busily engaged in leaf construction during the entire year, writes Dr. Edward F. Bigelow in Boys’ Life. 1 Even in the summer he cuts off thejgreen leaves and' skillfully packs them among the branches or in the fork of a tree, so that they shed the rain and roof a cavity big enough to shelter two or three squlirrels. Until within a few years .1 supposed. that these leafy homes were for rearing the young only, but in a small grove near my own home I find a number of leaf nests occupied by the squirrels at various times. ... I recall vividly the bending down of a white birch tree, that contained a leaf nest, and having four young gray squirrels drop out of it as the nest fell to pieces. I still feel a keen regret for having destroyed a squirrel 'home, but I am glad to add that, when J placed the young in the nest, reconstructed on the ground to the best Of my ability, the mother squirrel came and carried them to a hollow tree, as a cat will carry a kitten, or a mouse will carry the young, though by a somewhat different method.