Project Gutenberg's Harper's Young People, January 6, 1880, by Various

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Title: Harper's Young People, January 6, 1880
An Illustrated Weekly

Author: Various

Release Date: March 10, 2009 [EBook #28300]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE, JAN 6, 1880 ***

Produced by Annie McGuire

[Illustration: HARPER'S

YOUNG PEOPLE

AN ILLUSTRATED WEEKLY.]

* * * * *

VOL. I.--NO. 10. PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK. PRICE FOUR
CENTS.

Tuesday, January 6, 1880. Copyright, 1879, by HARPER & BROTHERS. $1.50
per Year, in Advance.

* * * * *

[Illustration: A FAMILY IN DANGER.]

SQUIRRELS AND WILD-CATS.

The most graceful of all the little inhabitants of the forest is the
squirrel. It is to be found in nearly every country, and is always the
same merry, frisky little creature. The general name for the great
squirrel family is _Sciurus_, a compound of two pretty Greek words
signifying shadow and tail, the beautiful bushy tail being a universal
family characteristic. Of the many varieties found in our Northern woods
the most common of all is the little chipmunk, a beautiful creature of
brownish-gray, with stripes of black and yellow on its back, and a snowy
white throat. It is the only burrower of the family. Choosing some
sheltered place under a stone wall or a clump of bushes, it digs a hole
which often descends perpendicularly for a yard or more before branching
off into the winding galleries and snug little apartments, some of which
serve as store-houses where nuts, corn, and seeds of different kinds are
hoarded away for its winter supplies. The little corner of the burrow
used as a nest is carefully and warmly lined with dry leaves and grass,
and here the tiny squirrel slumbers during the cold winter months.
Chipmunks are very plentiful in the country, and may be seen any sunny
day scampering along the stone walls, or up and down the trunks of nut
trees, their little cheeks, if it is in the autumn, puffed out round
with nuts, which they are carrying to their winter store-house.