112 MAMMALS

scales to the tail, belong to the Sccurzde@. The spiny
squirrels are exclusively African ; their hair is very
coarse and quill-like, and their ears are very small
or, at least as far as the external ear is concerned,
wanting altogether. The true squirrels are found
everywhere, except in Madagascar and Australasia.
Some of the tropical species are very brightly coloured,
some of the American are striped, and some of
the Siberian are white; the largest are found in
Malaysia, the prettiest being our own common squirrel
(Sciurus vulgarzs), which is found all across Europe
and Asia away to Japan.

In America this squirrel is represented by the
chickaree (S. hudsonianus), which is the boldest of
his tribe, and seems to have no fear of man. Sir
Francis Head has a capital anecdote with regard
to this fearlessness. ‘I was waiting,’ he says, ‘the
approach of a large flock of wildfowl; but a little
villain of a squirrel on the bough of a tree close
to me, seemed to have determined that even now
I should not rest in quiet; for he sputtered and
chattered with so much vehemence that he attracted
the attention of my dog. This was truly mortifying,
for he kept his eyes fixed on the squirrel; with my
hand I threatened the little beast, but he actually
set up his back and defied me, becoming even more
passionate than before, till all of a sudden, as if
purposely to alarm the game, he dropped plump
within a couple of yards of Rover’s nose. This was
too much for the latter to bear ; so he gave a bounce
and sprang upon the impertinent squirrel, who in a
second was out of his reach, cocking his tail and