_ 1901-1902.] The Squirrel. 289 
is far fetched that squirrels might flee from persecution in the 
_ valley of the Dee across the mountains to Glenesk. 
_ -In the woods at The Burn, near Gannochy Bridge, I have 
been much interested in watching squirrels carrying pieces of 
fungi, large quantities growing there. I am ashamed to con- 
_ fess that I have never as yet accompanied any of the “fungus 
forays” of this Society, and am ignorant of the species which 
_ are poisonous and those which are edible. In the mushroom- 
_ ing excursions of my boyhood I was taught to gather only 
_ those in the open fields, as the ones growing underneath trees 
_ were characterised as “puddock stools,” and consequently 
_ poisonous. As stated, I have never made a study of them, 
but long since discovered that squirrels and deer seem to revel 
in devouring them, especially the red, and, to the uninitiated, 
poisonous-looking ones. 
Squirrels often devour the haws of the thorn and the berries 
of the yew. After a fall of snow last year, I came on the track 
of one which I followed till it disappeared beneath a large 
Irish yew. Retiring to some distance in order to watch his 
movements, I had an excellent opportunity of observing how 
differently squirrels and sparrows feed in concert. The bush 
was thickly studded with red berries, on which the squirrel 
__was feeding, and it was interesting to watch how dexterously 
he seized one, and split it up the middle in order to get out 
the kernel. This in turn he split up, devouring the inside, 
but allowing the shell with the outside of the berry to fall to 
the ground. Directly the squirrel let any fragments drop, 
half-a-dozen sparrows flew down and picked them up. I have 
also known them do much mischief by gnawing off the tops of 
horse-radish. They do not even stick at a turnip. A few 
years ago, when partridge-shooting with a party in Lauderdale, 
in Berwickshire, and while sitting at lunch on the roadside, we 
observed a peculiar animal running towards us on the road. 
We could not make out what it was until it came close to us, 
when we discovered it was a squirrel with a turnip in its 
mouth nearly the size of a man’s clenched fist. When quite 
‘hear, one of the dogs moved, and it quickly dropped the turnip 
and scuttled through the hedge. 
j Do squirrels eat eggs ? “This has for some time been a 
 controverted question. For long I was disinclined to believe 
Pe are 
