for food, Americans have strangely elected to class it
as "game," and shoot it to death, _to eat_! And this in stall-fed
America, in the twentieth century! Americans are the only white people
in the world who eat squirrels. It would be just as reasonable, and no
more barbarous, to kill domestic cats and eat them. Their flesh would
taste quite as good as squirrel flesh and some of them would afford
quite as good "sport."

Every intelligent person knows that in the United States the deadly
shot-gun is rapidly exterminating every bird and every small mammal that
is classed as "game," and which legally may be killed, even during two
months of the twelve. The market gunners slaughter ducks, grouse, shore
birds and rabbits as if we were all starving.

The beautiful gray squirrel has clung to life in a few of our forests
and wood-lots, long after most other wild mammals have disappeared; but
throughout at least ninety-five per cent, of its original area, it is
now extinct. During the past thirty years I have roamed the woods of my
state in several widely separated localities,--the Adirondacks,
Catskills, Berkshires, western New York and elsewhere, and in all that
time I have seen only _three_ wild gray squirrels outside of city parks.

Except over a very small total area, the gray squirrel is already gone
from the wild fauna of New York State!

Do the well-fed people of America wish to have this beautiful animal
entirely exterminated? Do they wish the woods to become wholly lifeless?
Or, do they desire to bring back some of the wild creatures, and keep
them for their children to enjoy?

There is no wild mammal that responds to protection more quickly than
the gray squirrel. In two years' time, wild specimens that are set free
in city parks learn that they are safe from harm and become almost
fearless. They take food from the hands of visitors, and climb into
their arms. One of the most pleasing sights of the Zoological Park is
the enjoyment of visitors, young and old, in "petting" our wild gray
squirrels.

We ask the Boy Scouts of America to bring back this animal to each state
where it belongs, by securing for it from legislatures and governors the
perpetual closed seasons that it imperatively needs. It is not much to
ask. This can be done by writing to members of the legislatures and
requesting a suitable law. Such a request will be both right and
reasonable; and three states have already granted it.

The gray squirr