[ 26i I 



Wherever they bark the tree all round, there is a 

 difcontinuance of a due circulation of the fap, and 

 that part of the tree, which is above the injury fuf- 

 taincd, dies, and is generally broken off by the firft 

 high winds in the enfuing winter^ and the trees, de- 

 prived of their tops, make a mod unfightly appear- 

 ance and are fpoiled. Befides thefe younger trees 

 that are thus barked, I have many large trees, of at 

 Icaft 50 years growth, which are in like manner 

 damaged, by thefe mifchievous animals, in their 

 upper branches and leading fhoots. 



I have particularly obferved that thefe animals 

 attack no' other fpecies of the fir or pine kind but 

 the Scotch fir, notwithftanding the Scotch fir has 

 the roughed and hardeft bark of any. The fprucc, 

 the filver, the Weymouth, the larch, the pinafter, 

 and the cedar of Lebanon, though intermixed^oc- 

 cafionally with the Scotch in my woods, remain 

 unattacked and unmolefted by them. I have ob- 

 ferved too that the fquirrels never begin their attacks 

 till about the beginning of April, and generally ceafe 

 from their deftrudivc works about the latter end 

 of May. 



From this circumftance I have been induced to 

 draw this inference; that thefe animals, which ar6 



S 3 known 



