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H A R D W I C K E ' S S C I E N C K - G O S S I P. 



of the nock." This is not, conclusive, as Mr. Saf- ' 

 gent very properly remarks, unless "the squirrels 

 he refers to were in a state of nature." Second. 

 "We have the P.S. to the letter of Barbara "Wallace 

 Fyfe, which states: "An old naturalist has just in- I 

 formed me that he has often observed squirrels 

 eating the game eggs." Third. We have F. A. F., j 

 whose evidence I think is the most conclusive of 

 any. We can hardly suppose that he mistook the ! 

 animal which attacked the little rabbit. All the . 

 other evidence, in my opinion, goes for nothing 

 until the question is decided. I don't think we are j 

 warranted in shooting down the poor squirrels, as I 

 cannot help supposing but that a carnivorous meal 

 (if I may use the expression) must be of very rare 

 occurrence in the lifetime of a Sciurus. For my 

 part, the pleasure derived from watching this grace- 

 ful, agile animal skipping from tree to tree is in- 

 comparably superior to that pleasure, or, rather, 

 disgust, with which my mind would be filled were I 

 to witness the wholesale slaughter at an English 

 battue. And it is in order to have this slaughter 

 more bloody, more perfect, and more complete, that 

 the gamekeeper is permitted to kill one of nature's 

 most beautiful and graceful creatures. In answer 

 to W. E. L., I may say that I have never observed 

 the squirrels eating the young shoots of pines and 

 firs. I have, however, seen the ground strewn 

 hundreds of times with cones whose scales were 

 nearly all picked off, in order to get at the seeds, 

 and nothing left but the centre. I shall be happy 

 to send W. E. L. some cones thus eaten, at the 

 first opportunity, should he give me his address. — 

 11. 31. Earrington, Fassarol Bray, co. Wicldow. 



P.S. I think it would be very interesting if some 

 reader of Science-Gossip, who may have a squirrel 

 in confinement, would try him with a few eggs, and, 

 having closely observed his modus operandi when 

 breaking the shell and eating, let us know the result. 



The Squirrel. — I fear that the accusatious 

 against the Squirrel, which I see have been made iu 

 your interesting pages, are but too true. That he 

 eats young missel-thrushes and other nestling 

 birds ; that he strips the shoots off young spruce 

 firs (Pinus syhestris, Scotch pine) till they " strew 

 the ground," are facts but too well known to the 

 woodmen, keepers, and bird-lovers of these parts, 

 in which he swarms. For my part, as a preserver 

 of singing birds, I order every squirrel seen on my 

 grounds to be destroyed. I am very sorry for the 

 squirrels; but I prefer my birds: I do not wish 

 them to be eaten alive, beginning (as the most dis- 

 tinguished English ornithologist assures me) at the 

 bill.— C. Kingsley, Eversley, Hants. 



Is it the Squirrel op Mr. George Cox? — 

 In Science-Gossip, No. 82, p. 237, there appears a 

 somewhat harsh stricture by the above-named gen- 

 tleman on a paper in a former number (SO), written 



by the talented pen of "Miss Barbara "Wallace Fyfe." 

 When a young lady gives up the authority for any 

 information she has received, and that authority is 

 worthy of belief, it is both rude, ungenerous, and 

 ungallant to meet her with such a reply as that to 

 which Mr. George Cox has appended his name. 

 However well able Miss Fyfe has shown herself to 

 meet such a phantom in attempted ornithology as 

 this Mr. Cox, it is necessary that I should bear 

 out that young lady's statements as to every word 

 she has put forth with regard to the Squirrel, and 

 the mischievous and predatory animal which the 

 Squirrel really is. "When attacked, I hope I have 

 ever been willing and able to defend myself from 

 all assailants ; but when a clever girl is assailed, 

 through me, aud the truth of her statements doubted 

 by a man really ignorant of the subject on which 

 he labours to be severe, then defence is not only a 

 double duty, but it becomes a pleasure, inasmuch 

 as the weaker side, so to speak, calls for some 

 support. I have myself detected the squirrels in 

 sucking pheasants' eggs, wood-pigeons' eggs, and 

 blackbirds' eggs, and shot them from trees up into 

 which they had carried the pheasants' eggs, and 

 were in the act of feasting on them, cup-like, held 

 between their hands in the most artistic fashion. I 

 have myself detected them in killing and carrying 

 away young pheasants when hand-rearing at the 

 coops, young wild ducks, and other young water- 

 fowl, and in one instance, in taking some young 

 tufted ducks from a coop, across a field, across a 

 single rail, put to stop cattle from straying down a 

 little running rill, and have found three of these 

 young birds at the foot of a fir-tree, one bitten so 

 severely that it died ; but the other two were 

 not perceptibly injured, and wheu restored to the 

 coop both of these recovered. The keeper then shot 

 both the squirrels, a male and female, from the tree 

 beneath which they had left the birds. I am very 

 fond of rearing and taming young wood-pigeons ; but 

 when I first came to my present residence, every egg 

 and, if hatched, every yound bird in the nests, was 

 eaten. Mr. Cox unwarrantably assumes that all I 

 said on the subject of the Squirrel to Miss Fyfe was 

 "hear-say." Probably he judged my sources of 

 information on subjects connected with natural 

 history to be similar to those on which he has based 

 his ungenerous attack. Having entered into this 

 explanation, I trust to the generosity of the editor 

 and publisher of the Science-Gossip to give it 

 space. — Grantley F. Berkeley, Ahlemey Manor, 

 Poole. 



Elephant Parasite.— The parasite figured and 

 described by Mr. Ilichter at p. 132, as Idolocoris 

 elephantis, was previously figured and described by 

 E. Piaget, as Htcmatomyzv.s elephantis in TijdachHft 

 roor Entomologie for 18G9, page 219, pi. 11, figs. 1 

 to 14. 



