288 The Squirrel. [Sess. 
feeling of self-satisfaction said that “not even a sparrow could 
get in.” Sciwrus vulgaris was, however, too many for him, as, 
like the rat, he soon cut holes in the net to suit himself, and 
the cherries rapidly disappeared. I was sent for with my gun 
to shoot the depredator. While showing me a place to conceal 
myself among some bushes, the gardener was sent for by his 
mistress, Sitting quiet, the squirrel soon made its appearance 
on the top of the wall, when I fired and killed it. It is to 
this day, however, a moot point whether the squirrel or his 
murderer was the greater robber of the cherries, as, having 
shot the thief, I saw no reason why, in the gardener’s absence, 
I should not help myself. 
Large quantities of fungi are devoured by squirrels. When 
grouse-driving at Millden in Forfarshire in September last, I 
observed one miles away from any trees. At the termination 
of a drive far up the side of Mount Battock, and when sending 
my retriever to “seek dead,” he made a point at something in 
the heather. I knew by his manner that it was not a grouse, 
and on going forward he pounced on something which jumped 
up, and which I at first took to be a stoat. In an instant it 
was seized by the dog and killed. I saw it was a squirrel, 
but too late to save it. I had it put in the panniers, and 
could not help reflecting on a squirrel being so far from wood. 
What, I wondered, could it be doing there? This fact is at 
variance with many writers, who state that squirrels do not 
stray far from trees. Instances are, however, recorded that 
they do. At lunch time I dissected it, and found its stomach 
packed full of fungi, which possibly had attracted it so far up 
among the treeless mountains. Another theory suggested — 
itself to my mind. As squirrels are suffering much persecu- 
tion for destroying the forest trees in the valley of the Dee, : 
and as Mount Battock constitutes the watershed between the — 
counties of Aberdeen and Forfar, might it not be impelled by — 
natural instinct to leave the persecuted district and seek for 
more congenial quarters in the valley of the North Esk ? 
I have in snow followed the tracks of an otter—which is — 
generally believed never to stray far from water—over the 
mountain ridge which constitutes the watershed and county — 
march between Perthshire and Inverness-shire. Rats are also 
known to travel long distances, and I do not think the theory 
ie eda, oe eS pe eee 
; 
2. 
i 
