Animals For Children

ANIMALS ARE CUTE SOMETIMES!

                     SQUIRREL                       

                    The squirrel has such a chatter

Then the cotton he will scatter

The junk in his hole is no matter

He just eats and gets fatter.

 Squirrel Cutie

This squirrel is such a cutie

Moving his soft bushy tail

With his bright eyes to note

Every single move you dote.

See all the wiggles of his nose

And his chewing has no end.

With sharp teeth he’ll rend

Many hard things to send

To the hollow hole of the tree trunk.

You wouldn’t believe all the junk.

But he has so much fun

Running, stashing and storing

For winter is cold and storming.

I wonder what the attic looks like.

Climbing is quite a steep hike

Run up the side of the house.

Those toes are very sharp

To run and climb on the bark

Even chasing in the dark.

I here him scamper in the night

And have a midnight fight.

Running through the house

Just like the tiny mouse.

We have to catch you cutie

The house is not for you cutie.

So have a ride up the road

In the bucket it’s quite a load.

Then like lightening jump

It’s freedom for this squirrel.

His instinct knows home

He knows where to come.

Still lots of action in the attic

Still has his midnight picnic

Out of the snow for cutie

What are we to do with you

We have to live with you, cutie.

 Squirrel Sense

That frisky little streak went by so fast. Where did he go? He lives up to his name, squirrel, which means  “shadow-tailed”.  Most squirrels are small and there are the pygmy squirrel and the larger marmots, which are in the family of squirrels also.  The squirrel has his bushy tail and silky soft fur with big searching eyes that can see very well. He is alert to all that is going on and quick as a wink he is gone.  There are many different colors of squirrels and their back legs are usually longer than their front legs.  You will find some kind of squirrel in most parts of the world.  Not so much in the desert or the polar regions but they like the forest and the parks and they even like to live in your house and chew holes in the walls. And they eat the food that you will put out for the wild birds.

Their teeth are amazingly sharp so they can chew those hard seeds and nut that they eat, like all the maple seeds that are flying around here.  And the little balls on the poplar trees that are full of cotton fluff, they like to chew up also, when they are fresh and green before they pop open.

The baby squirrels, when they are first born are naked, blind, and toothless so they need a lot of care.

  GATHERING CHESTNUTS. 

VERY early one morning in late October Bert and his little brother Herman woke up, and running to the window, peered out into the gray dawn. 

"Yes, there was a hard frost," said Bert, " and the nuts will drop off real easy." 

"Oh, I'm so glad," said his brother, "maybe papa will let us go today." 

All the fall the boys had been laying plans to go nutting with their father, and they had been waiting for a hard frost to come and open the chestnut burrs. 

They dressed and ran down stairs to ask their father to go that very day. 

"Oh, please do go father," they begged. Father said he was very sorry to disappoint his little boys, but that he must go away today on business. 

The boys were just getting ready to make some wry faces that looked a little like crying, when their father said, "It is such a good morning to gather nuts that I don't know but if neighbor Robinson's boy, Henry, wants to go along with you, and mother will put you up a luncheon, you may go without me when the dew has dried off. 

Only you must be sure to start home in time to get here before it is dark." Mother was glad to put them up a luncheon, and the boys ran over to neighbor Robinson's to 

see Henry. He promised to go, and by ten o'clock Henry, Bert, and Herman, with their little sister Minnie, went trudging down the country road to the woods. The air was clear and the sun shone bright. Little squirrels and chipmunks ran across the road, or sitting on their haunches, peered curiously in the children's happy faces. 

When they got to the woods, they found the chestnut burrs cracked open and the nuts all ready to fall. Henry climbed the tree and shook them down, while Bert got a pole to help him. 

Minnie held her little apron for Henry to drop nuts into, and Herman picked up what fell to the ground. They found that they were not the only ones who were out nutting that bright autumn day; for little red squirrels with their bushy tails cocked over their backs were scampering up and down, in and out, among the trees, very busy laying up stores of nuts for the coming winter. 

Pretty soon they heard a shout from Herman who had strayed away from them. On going where he was, they found him with one hand in a hole in a gnarled old tree, and on drawing it out, he showed them a little bit of a squirrel that he had found. 

"Let's take it home," said Minnie. 

Bert wanted to do so, too, but his brother said, "Just think how sorry the squirrel's mother will be when she comes home and ands her baby stolen." 

Minnie thought squirrels didn't have any feelings, but Henry said he guessed they would better put it back. 

So after leaving the little thing safe and warm, they picked up their bag of nuts, Henry and Bert carrying the bag, Herman the basket, and little Minnie her apron full, and went home. 

In the evening, Herman drew on his slate a picture of the woods and flowers and the little brook, with Bert poking the nuts off with his long pole, just like the one on this page. Mamma thinks he will make quite an artist sometime. Don't you think so, too? 

W. E. L. 

No trait of character is rarer, none more admirable,' than thoughtful independence of the opinions of others, combined with a sensitive regard to the feelings of others. 

GROUND SQUIRRELS.

MOST of the children will recognize in the picture above, the little ground squirrel, perhaps best known to them by the name of "chipmunk." They are smaller than the red squirrel, and are not so bright colored. You can always know them by the five black stripes' running from the neck almost to the tail. 

The two stripes on the sides are separated by a white line, as you see in the picture. They are innocent little creatures, and do hardly any damage to the farmer, for they do not disturb the grain until it is ripe, and only gather their winter store from what is left on the fields by the harvesters. They do not climb trees as other kinds of squirrels do, but make their nests in the roots and in old stumps, where they stow away nuts, wheat, corn, cherrystones, and grass seed, to live on during the cold months of winter. 

They are very playful, and it is amusing to see them standing upright on their hind legs on some old stump, looking as sober and dignified as a deacon, and cheeping at you like a chicken, until you come too near, when away they go to their nests before you can tell which way they went. Perhaps this is what has led the boys to call them "chipmunks." Sometimes they will not go to their nests, but will run along the fence or stonewall, cunningly peeping out here and there, and then darting back again, as though playing hide-and-seek with you. Often, too, a couple of them may be seen racing around a stump or stone-heap, and like boys playing tag, when one has fairly touched the other, he turns and is himself chased; and so they keep up the game until tired out. 

Now, boys, since these little creatures do no harm at all, and are so pleasant to watch and study, don't you think it is cruel to kill them just to see if you can throw or shoot straight enough to hit them? And when you see a boy doing so again, will you not ask him to put down his gun or stone, and watch their play while you tell him how harmless the little fellows are; and how hard they work all through the warm weather to gather food, so that they may live to another summer to amuse us with their frolic. 

THE FLYING SQUIRREL.

AMONG the many curious and interesting animals which are found in our country,

and also in other countries, is the flying squirrel, of which the artist has given us a very good view in the accompanying engraving. There are several species of this queer little creature, all very similar, yet differing in some particulars. They are found not only in America, but in Russia, Australia, India, Java, Siberia, Poland, and other countries, each species showing some little difference in appearance and size.

The principal difference between them and the common squirrels is in the peculiar membrane, or skin, which extends between the fore and hind legs, and by means of which the animal sails in a descending line from a high point to a lower, supported as by a parachute. It is supposed by many that the animal has the faculty of flying like a bird; but this is a mistake. There is nothing resembling the act of flying in its movements, such as is seen in the flying-fish; it simply leaps from a high point, spreading out its legs, and expanding the membrane between them, as shown in the engraving, and sails a distance of forty or fifty yards; and when it wishes to alight, the impetus of its course enables it to ascend in a curved line to about one-third the height from which it started; then running quickly to the top of a tree, it re-descends in a similar manner, and will thus travel a long distance in a few moments without touching the ground.

The flying squirrel is a harmless and gentle little creature, and is easily tamed. It is a nocturnal animal, rarely appearing until sunset, when its gambols and graceful flights may often be seen in wooded places, as they come out from their hidden retreat in search of food.

One species, found in New Holland, is said to attain to the size of a half-grown cat, and its meat is considered by the natives as excellent food; but as it remains hidden and asleep in its nest in some old hollow tree during the day-time, it is difficult to capture, and so is comparatively safe from every foe, except the ever hungry and ever watchful native, whose eye is capable of detecting almost anything eatable, however deeply it may be hidden from sight. A slight scratch on the bark of a tree, or a chance hair that has adhered to the side of the aperture into which the animal has entered, tells its tale to the native hunter as plainly as though he had seen him enter ; and with the most remarkable acuteness, he is able to tell from the appearance of the scratch and the aspect of the hairs, how long a time has elapsed since the squirrel entered its hiding-place. The native climbs the tree until he reaches the aperture, and then with his hatchet strikes the body of the tree to learn the position of the animal in the cavity. Having learned this, he cuts a hole through the side of the tree, and reaching in, he seizes the animal, and jerks it out; and dashing its head against the side of the tree, he drops it to the ground dead.

In almost any public museum in our country, stuffed specimens of this beautiful little creature may be seen and examined, and much may be learned in regard to its peculiar habits.

J. W. B.