Wisconsin School of the Air; Afield with Ranger Mac; 26

The Wisconsin School of the air invites you to go on a field with a ranger Mack. Today boys and girls is going to talk about the wiseguy of the tree tops. And now to take you on another radio hike down the nature trail. Here's your guide Ranger Mack. Hello boys and girls. This is your day. Let's be up and away. Wiseguy. That is a rather slinging name and not very complimentary particularly when applied to a human being. It means we're probably sure was off who thinks he knows it all and gives voice to his good opinion of himself. So I am sorry that we gave this name to our fiery friend of the tree tops. You might be prejudiced against him from the start. We don't want you to be. He was a little piece of fiery animation who believes he has a rightful place in his woodland wear road and he uses every bit of his being to make his beliefs known.

He is little and he must talk big. Or he would have would have been crowded off the pace of this earth long ago. He demonstrates that precious treasures are often done up in little packages. Nature often enshrines brave hearts and small breasts. As she has done that in the red square alone the red squarely is only 12 inches long from the tip of his rather blunt nose to the tip of his beautiful bushy tail. I was 12 inches almost six inches is tail. We are talked about tails on our trip afield and the uses that the owners make of their tails. But we did not mention a very special use at the Red Square makes of his tail. He is a noisy fellow he talks and expresses his rage

voices threats of great alarm swearers most eloquently in square a language which would not look well if translated into English and he emphasizes everything he says by the use of his tail. We think that teachers of elocution might find much help in the teaching of gestures by watching this fireball. When he is boiling over with emotion he can really lay down the law. Most emphatically and much of his scolding can be translated into the word chicory and with the already be prolonged into a trill. So he is nicknamed chicory. If you enter his demand he mounts a limb just out of reach and boils over with rage while telling you that you have no business in his

territory and then he will dash about on the trunk of the tree head down as though he intended to come down and drive you off the premises. Chicory is the most alert the sassiest curious to some of any denizens of our woods. His cousins that live in our woods are the grey square of the Fox QUERO and the flying squirrel. Occasionally a black square which is the sport of the grey squirrel at these Queiroz all live in trees and so are called a boreal. A b o r e a l noticed a b o r which means tree. He has cousins that live in the ground also. These are called round square rows. They are the chipmunk gophers of many kinds and the woodchuck chicory and all his relatives belong to the tribe of rodents.

These are the animals that keep knowing in order to keep their insights or teach. From growing too long. Just as nature has provided provided trees that grow better in some places than others. So she has done the same things with squirrels. The grey squirrel likes best the oak and not burying Wooden's while the Red Square O is found most abundantly in the forest. A cone bearing trees at the pines in the spruces so often it is called the pine squirrel. All square rows seem to have excellent memories and a sense of smell that is keen beyond our understanding. Then one big job that confronts squirrels is providing food for winter. Every bar or girl has seen the grey squirrel

bury nuts in the soil during autumn. He digs a hole about two times the diameter of the knot. Pushes them not firmly into the hole covers covers it over with oil and pats down the saw aisle looks about for a moment as go getting the exact location. Then goes off and repeats the performance in some other locality. He does not mark the place of burial yet on warm days in the depths of winter when snow covers the ground he will return to the spot sniff about for a moment or two then dig dig up the knot from the ground beneath the snow. Is it memory that guides him back to the place where he buried the not so many weeks before our When the landscape was entirely different. It might be a combination of memory and a

sense of smell memory guiding him to the general area and the sense of smell to the particular knot. This is one of the mysterious ways by which Mother Nature takes care of her children. It happens that squirrels often forget and fail to find the nuts hidden away. These not sprout. And in this way trees and groves of trees are started by the grey squirrel so he deserves Well the name of the furry forest star at the meet of the party Forester is very good to eat and it is only by cleverness he escapes our guns that are folks who believe that our groves of oaks are not trees are disappearing because the great squarely shocked in such numbers that too few are left to plant the

seeds of future pro-rights. You see the great square has a very definite part in the scheme of nature. We see the gray squarely in our streets and parks. They seem to take on some of the drab of our civilization for they never equal in beauty of her and color are those that live in the forests. It is seldom that you find a tale of a city dweller in the full glory of its natural beauty. You must go to the woods to see that you must go to the forest to see the red squirrels also. They are too full of the vigor and vim of the wilds to be attracted by the hand-outs of the city folks as the grey squirrels are just now the red squirrel is in his wooing garb his upper coat is its reddest

the bell is its whitest and the dark line between is its dark at its darkest while its tail is a shower of readiness the Red Square rows have mated and the young will be born in April three to six in number naked and blind weighing about one half an ounce each. Other home is a hole in some tree. Later on. The mother may build a nest in a crotch of a tree of a high tree and carry the young to the nest. Just why squirrels do this can be guessed that only by Jonah the squirrel children are weaned. But the primally stays together all summer. It is the mother square Al who trains the children in the ways of

squirrel like the red squirrel is a good provider. Nature and stern necessity has taught him to provide ample provisions for the winter nuts acorns seeds and cones of trees are stored away in hollows of trees beneath the roots of trees underneath the logs. Beneath the loose bark of trees there are unmistakable tracks can be seen on the snow of winter. Whatever you find the red square of there you find the Blue Jay. This bird finds the storehouse of the Red Square like good source of winter food. Now the Blue Jay does a little storing himself but his supplies are never ample. He is a great annoyance to the red squirrel but he often provides himself proves himself to be a great friend. And

because when a hunter enters the woods the bluejays sends out his alarm of thief thief and the squirrels as well as the other. What dwellers scamper for cover about this time of the year the squirrel may feed the need for a change of diet. So at this time of the year you often see squirrels balancing themselves out on the ends of branches. They are gathering buds for food. Just when the sap is beginning to sweeten the buds sometimes he will tap a maple or a birch with his chisel like teeth he will cut out a little cavity in the trunk in which the sap collects. He may have many such drinking fountains. One of the unusual kinds of

kind of food. Now that the squirrel Starz away is mushrooms he knows just when to harvest these delicacies. I have found pieces stored away in the loose bark of trees but. But was never able to identify them until I learned I have this habit of the grace of the square. Evidently they dry the pieces of mushrooms before storing them. I don't know whether they can distinguish between the poisonous and non poisonous or whether there is any need to. They may be able to eat the poisonous without harm. Who knows. But they do like mushrooms a trailhead are sent in this question are red squirrels enemies of birds eye. I have been told that they robbed nests of eggs and eat the young. Will you let me know. Now many people believe the Red Square on the

bird's worst enemy. Others believe he doesn't meddle with nesting birds. It is probably not safe for a bird to build in a territory occupied by a red squirrel family. They do not like this intrusion. No doubt that our red squirrels guilty of the crimes of which they are accused. If a hawk learns that a parm or chicken yard is an easy source of food that Hawk will acquire the habit of catching chickens and the same thing can be said about squirrels and the eggs and nestlings of birds. I believe it is to be. It is. It is largely a habit formed like any other habit that any animal may have or any person may have also. So much but a brief biography of chicory

How does it seem to wake up to the music of birds these mornings. It's so warm when the South Wind full of birds cries there's the Congaree of the redwing the whistle of the cardinal the robin redbreast the cooing of the morning dolphin far off can be heard. The Rat a tat tat of the woodpecker spring to scare only three more snowstorms are prophesied good luck until next week and may the Great Spirit put sunshine in your heart today and forever Mark Heap much the familiar Indian farewell brings us to the end of another trip a field with a ranger Mack. He'll be back again next week at the same time to be our guide for another radio trip down the nature trail to learn about snakes. This is the Wisconsin School of the air.