It is a
common belief, that the red squirrels make common cause with the grey, and
beat the larger enemy off the ground. The black squirrel, for a succession
of years, was very rarely to be met with on the Plains, while there were
plenty of the red and grey in the "oak openings." [Footnote: Within the
last three years, however, the black squirrels have been very numerous, and
the red are less frequently to be seen. The flesh of the black squirrel is
tender, white, and delicate, like that of a young rabbit.] Deer, at the
time our young Crusoes were living on the Rice Lake Plains, were plentiful,
and, of course, so were those beasts that prey upon them,--wolves, bears,
and wolverines, besides the Canadian lynx, or catamount, as it is here
commonly called, a species of wild-cat or panther. These wild animals are
now no longer to be seen; it is a rare thing to hear of bears or wolves,
and the wolverine and lynx are known only as matters of history in this
part of the country; these animals disappear as civilization advances,
while some others increase and follow man, especially many species of
birds, which seem to pick up the crumbs that fall from the rich man's
board, and multiply about his dwelling; some adopt new habits and modes of
building and feeding, according to the alteration and improvement in their
circumstances.
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