REPORTS BY THE HONORARY OFFICIALS. 69 
larches, spruces, etc., being robbed of their seeds. My own 
observations would lead me to think that spruce seed is a favourite. 
I have picked up scores of spruce (Picea eacelsa) cones pulled off 
and destroyed by squirrels, and now and again have come on 
a spruce stump on whose cut surface lay several cones that had 
afforded a repast for the squirrel. The cones are damaged in a 
characteristic way, as all the scales are pulled off bodily except 
a few at the top. Cones damaged by Crossbills (Lowia curvirostra) 
show quite a different appearance. 
Buds of trees and also young shoots are destroyed, and much 
harm may be done by the squirrel barking pines and larches. The 
bark may be removed here and there in patches, or the tree may be 
quite “ringed,” the squirrel hanging on to the wounded bark by its 
sharp claws, and licking the sap on the exposed places. 
Galls are also taken by the squirrel, the oak gall (Cynips 
Kollari) for example. In Roslin Glen this summer I found some 
of the galls of the spruce gall aphis (Chermes abietis), which 
had been picked to pieces by squirrels. 
When the squirrel comes to the ground, he may do harm by 
scratching up sowed seeds or very young plants. Truffles are 
hunted for by scent, and Mr J. E. Harting has noticed squirrels 
breaking up and eating the large white fungus (Boletus edulis). 
Now and again the squirrel takes eggs and young birds. Abroad 
it has been noticed that in places much frequented by squirrels, the 
song birds show a marked decrease in a few years, and I have in 
my notebook authenticated records of birds (sparrows and starlings) 
being killed and eaten by them. 
In view of this very bad record, the economic zoologist’s verdict 
in the case of Sciwrus vulgaris must be “Guilty”; and even if the 
taking of a few galls and insects, and his beauty (and the squirrel’s 
grace and liveliness in the wood will never fail to cover a multitude 
of his sins), are pled as extenuating circumstances, should squirrels 
be very numerous the forester must forget the wsthetic and use 
his gun. 
