21T 



COMMON SQUIRREL. (8CIURU8 VULGARIS. Linn.) 



BY J. MC INTOSH, ESQ. 



The Sciiirus vulgaris, or Common European Squirrel. This elegant and 

 active inhabitant of our woods, is so generally distributed over Great Britain, 

 and so familiar to every one, that an account of its habits and manner of 

 living, may appear to some of the readers of The Naturalist unnecessary. 

 That there are, however, two opinions abroad among those unacquainted with 

 God's mighty volume, wherein His perfections are displayed, as to the 

 carnivorous or non-carnivorous propensities of Mr. Squirrel, is too true. 

 Now it is to banish, I hope for ever, from such people's minds this carnivo- 

 rous idea, that I have taken upon myself the task of saying anything about 

 the habits of this elegant and active little fellow and pet of our childhood, 

 for which I hope to be forgiven. 



About the year 1843, the first public announcement of the carnivorous pro- 

 pensities of Mr. Skuggy appeared in the " Gardeners' Magazine," and from 

 this journal it found a place in the " Magazine of Natural History," which 

 was allowed to pass as current coin, on the authority of Mr. Wighton, who 

 had observed a tame Squirrel, he had in confinement, partake of a morsel of 

 the flesh of a dead bird 



This public announcement meeting the keen eye of that veteran of Natural 

 History, Charles Waterton, Esq., produced from that gentleman's well known 

 and truthful naturalist's pen, the following, vide Essay's Natural History, 

 p.p. 40 — 44 : " Had the Squirrel been wild in the woods, at the time Mr. 

 Wighton saw it eat birds, I should not hesitate to pronounce that individual 

 Squirrel to be carnivorous. The single fact of his Squirrel being in cap- 

 tivity, at once precludes the possibility of the Squirrel family being raised 

 to the rank of carnivorous animals. I wish we knew more than we do of the 

 carnivorous propensities, or the want of them, in certain animals, we might 

 then be able to account tolerably well for many strange occui'rences which 

 every now and then puzzle us so much in the workings of Zoological gas- 

 tronomy. So unaccountable indeed are sometimes the actions both of man 

 and beast, not only in the eating department, but also in domestic arrange- 

 ments, that we might really fancy the performers not ,to be quite right in 

 their heads. My Tom-Cat, apparently an excellent mouser, will sometimes 

 prefer dry biscuit to mutton-chop. Sterne's Ass seemed to relish macaroon. 

 Parrots, in cages, will pull off" their own feathers and eat them by the dozen. 

 And, when I was in the Mediterranean sea, I saw a brute in the shape of a 

 man, swallow pieces of raw fowl (which he had torn asunder, feathers and 

 all)." Examples, such as we have quoted above, of the supposed carnivorous 

 propensities of the various animals kept in prisons and treadmills for the 

 amusement of our fellow-creatures, might be enlarged on — yes, enough to fill 

 a volume of The Naturalist. 



VOL. V. 



