loo^ Transactions of the [Sess. 



jackets or coats which hung about, and it was no extraordinary 

 thing to hear its peculiar cry when rudely awakened, by the owner 

 putting the jacket or coat on. Sometimes the squirrel's presence 

 was not discovered until the owner had gained the street, and then 

 (for although Jack had no scruples in gambolling all over one, 

 yet he had a decided objection to any but a very privileged few 

 handling him) there usually ensued a severe struggle between 

 duty and inclination, the one pointing clearly to not allowing Jack 

 to get his freedom on the street ; the other, and the stronger, to let 

 him take his chance. But when the performance of one's duty was 

 likely, in all probability, to result in an intimate acquaintance with 

 the squirrel's teeth, it is no wonder that inclination often won the 

 day, and that the squirrel had its freedom if so inclined, even 

 though the possession of its liberty resulted, as it did on one occa- 

 sion, in reducing to utter helplessness a linen-draper, who, from his 

 look of horror, seemed to attribute the commotion among his win- 

 dow stock to some supernatural agency. The squirrel's chief de- 

 light was searching for nuts, and it was a common practice to 

 rattle nuts in the hand to call the squii-rel's attention, and after- 

 wards secrete tliem about the person. Immediately on hearing the 

 sound, the squirrel would come at a great rate on his searching 

 expedition, and, however cunningly the nuts were concealed, he 

 was not long in finding them out, and he never cared to commence 

 his feast until the whole of the nuts were safely stored away in one 

 or other of his storehouses. One day he was captured while on 

 one of his excursions to a neighbouring garden, and confined in a 

 cage with a wheel attached ; but before the expiry of the usual 

 statutory thirty days, the once merry little fellow died of a broken 

 heart. 



In addition to the squirrel we had a ferret, which was, however, 

 only a pet to a few of us. I need hardly say that the long-suflering 

 female population fairly rebelled when it was proposed to give this 

 animal the run of the house, and its wanderings were consequently 

 confined within certain limits. The treatment which these animals 

 usually receive is most unnecessarily cruel. As many of you are 

 aware, ferrets are used for forcing rabbits out of their holes ; but the 

 great drawback to their use is the habit they have of what is 

 familiarly known as '' sticking in the hole." 'This happens when 

 the rabbits have been wounded or so frightened that they refuse to 

 move, even when the ferret gets to close quarters ; or perhaps 

 the rabbit gets into some hole where there is no bolt, when the 

 ferret kills it, and after sucking the blood coils itself up on the 

 carcase and goes to sleep. When this occurs, the only thing to 

 be done is to block up the hole and come back again next day, 

 when the prisoner is usually glad to get out. To prevent ferrets 

 catching and killing the rabbits, various methods are resorted to, 



