nuts. While eating, they sit upon their haunches, and handle nuts adroitly with their forefeet.

The gray squirrel is one of the handsomest and best-known species. They may be seen in considerable numbers running about the Capitol grounds and parks in Washington, D. C., and are so tame they will take nuts from one's hands.

Tree-squirrels make their homes in hollow trees, in which they store sufficient food for the severest winters. Ground-squirrels make burrows in the ground for storage of their food.

Woodchucks, or ground-hogs, are burrowing rodents, and belong to the family of groundsquirrels. They are fond of sitting erect, with their forefeet hanging down loosely. They wash and comb the hair on their face, and lick and smoothe their fur, like a cat. They sleep in their burrows much of the day, coming out occasionally to look around, feeding largely at night on grass, fruits, and vegetables. They are sometimes quite destructive to the farmer's cloverfields and crops.

February 2 is ground-hog day, and according to an old tradition, this animal then awakes from its winter sleep and comes out from its burrow. If the sun is shining so that it sees its shadow, it returns for another six weeks; but if it cannot

see its shadow, it knows there is to be an early spring. Such is the tradition.

THE WISE HARE

THE hare can not defend itself as can many other animals, but is obliged to depend for safety on its speed and cunning.

A poor little hare was one day closely pursued by two greyhounds, when, seeing a gate near, ran for it. The bars were too close to allow the hounds to get through, so they had to leap over the gate. As they did so, the hare, seeing that they would be upon it the next instant, turned round and ran back under the gate, where it had just before passed.

The force and speed of the hounds had sent them a good distance, and they had now to wheel about and leap once more over the gate.

Again the hare doubled, and returned by the way it had come, and thus, going backward and forward, the dogs followed till they were fairly tired out, when the little hare, watching its chance, happily made its escape.

The course pursued by the hare shows what may be accomplished by not yielding too readily to obstacles. It pays to persevere.

COWPER'S PET HARE

WHEN taken young, hares may be tamed with little difficulty. Cowper, the English poet, once had a hare that not only showed attachment, but thankfulness for kind care during a spell of sickness. Cowper himself thus describes him:

"He would leap into my lap, raise himself upon his hind feet, and bite the hair from my temples. He would suffer me to take him up and carry him about in my arms, and has more than once fallen asleep upon my knee. He was ill three days, during which time I nursed him, kept him apart from his fellows that they might not molest him -for, like many other wild animals, they persecute one of their own species that is sick-and by constant care, and trying him with a variety of herbs, restored him to perfect health.

"No creature could be more grateful than my patient after his recovery, a sentiment which he most significantly expressed by licking my hand, first the back of it, then the palm, then every finger separately, then between all the fingers, as if anxious to leave no part of it unsaluted; a ceremony which he never performed but once again on a similar occasion."

A grateful heart is admired even in dumb animals.

THE JACK-RABBIT

THE jack-rabbit is an inhabitant of Texas and some other Western States. He is often called the mule-eared rabbit, and by the cow-boy "muley."

He is not a rabbit at all, says the Texas Siftings man. A rabbit is an unobtrusive little animal, which is found by schoolboys, in a hollow log or a hole in the ground, at the end of a long track in the snow.

The jack-rabbit is quite a different kind of soup-meat. He is identical with the British hare, except that he is larger, his color is brighter, and his ears much longer. Full grown, his avoirdupois is about twelve pounds, and his ears measure, from tip to lip, about sixteen inches.

He does not burrow in the ground. He lies under cover of a bunch of prairie-grass, but is very seldom found at home, his office hours being between sunset and sunrise. He is to be found during the day on the open prairie, where he feeds on the tender shoots of the mesquit or sage-grass. He is not a ferocious animal, but innocent and inoffensive like his smaller brother, the rabbit.

The jack-rabbit has a great many enemies, among them the cowboy, who shoots him with his