The squirrel is such a familiar sight to us in parks or in the country that we might imagine that our own land is its home. Actually, there are squirrels in every part of the world except Australia!

In fact, there are very many different kinds of squirrels. They may be as large as cats or as small as mice. They may have soft, warm fur or prickly spines. They may scamper through the branches or glide easily through the air from treetop to treetop on flaps of skin that are like parachutes. Some of them even live in the ground. But almost all of them are friendly, chattering little animals with long bushy tails and bright beady eyes.

Squirrels form a separate family of rodents, or gnawing animals. They are divided into two general groups: the ground squirrels and the tree squirrels. In the same family as the ground squirrels are woodchucks, chipmunks, and prairie dogs. The best known tree squirrels are the little red squirrels, the gray squirrels, the fox squirrels, and the tufted-ear squirrels.

Tree squirrels, as a rule, spend the winter in some hollow tree trunk, which they line with leaves and twigs. In the spring, they often build another home high up in the treetops. There they raise their families of from four to six young.

The harmful red squirrel often eats the eggs and young of birds. However, most tree squirrels feed almost entirely on nuts, acorns, and pine cones. The squirrels must store up enough food in the fall for their use during the cold months.

The flying squirrels differ from all other squirrels in having the skin on their sides enlarged into flaps. When the animals stretch out their legs, these flaps, like the planes of a glider, help them to shoot through the air. Flying squirrels live in warm parts of North America, Europe, and Asia. They are seldom seen, for they usually sleep during the day.

Another interesting squirrel is a certain Asiatic squirrel which changes its coloring during the mating season, just as male birds do!