49 

 THE COMMON SQUIRREL. 



BY E. K. B. 



In the summer of 1854 my children had a tame Squirrel 

 together with a rotary cage — which one of the correspondents of "The 

 Naturalist" considers a cruel invention, and denominates "a treadmill/' and 

 the use of which another defends — in the course of a few days the little 

 prisoner made his escape, and not being heard of for about six weeks, was 

 considered lost; when, to the joy of all, he was discovered running about 

 the garden, and leaping from tree to tree, in the largest of which (an 

 acacia, about forty feet high, growing at the bottom of the garden, and 

 close to another house,) he was found to have built a nest. I fed him 

 with nuts, which I placed in a basket suspended from the tree, and he 

 lived happily, and in excellent health, all through the intensely cold winter, 

 until the following June, when he took his departure, disturbed, as I 

 imagine, by some workmen who were engaged close to the tree. I heard 

 nothing of him till last October, when I was informed that a Squirrel — 

 which I have not the slightest doubt is mine — had taken up his abode in 

 a tree in a gentleman's garden, about half a mile off, and within less 

 than that distance from Westminster Bridge, where he is now living, and 

 if undisturbed will no doubt continue to do so. The district between his old 

 and new home is a thickly-populated one, and intersected by several streets. 



While he resided on my premises I constantly saw the neighbouring 

 cats, which swarm here as in most other urban districts, watch him with 

 envious eyes, and frequently endeavour to catch him, but he was invariably 

 too vigilant and nimble for his enemies. 



I did not find, as Mr. Bell states in his "British Quadrupeds," that the 

 Squirrel '^remains during the greater part of the winter in a state of almost 

 complete torpidity," for I do not think a day passed during that excessively 

 cold winter, (the winter of 18o4-5,) without my seeing mine frisking about 

 the garden, and a pretty and interesting sight it was to watch him sitting 

 up in the snow, (and sometimes while actually sno.ving,) eating his nuts, 

 quite regardless of the bitter blasts, which while seeming merely to play 

 with him, made all nature beside shrink before them. 



On one occasion I was witness to a most interesting battle between my 

 pet Squirrel and a tame Raven. The quarrel was occasioned by some nuts 

 which I had thrown out of the parlour window, and which had attracted 

 the Raven's attention. The Squirrel was sitting up in a corner of the 

 garden eating some of thera, when the Raven having gathered up and hid 

 all he could find at a short distance from the Squirrel, at length approached 

 close to the latter to pick up the few that remained there, when my furry 

 pet, after allowing my feathered one to approach within a few inches of 



VOL. VI. H 



