DAMAGE TO FORESTS. 145 



work are visible upon the ground under the trees attacked, 

 and can be at once identified, but I doubt if this is always the 

 case. I fancy it would not always be easy to pick up the 

 rejected husks cast down by the squirrel amongst under- 

 growth, or the long heather amongst which young fir seed- 

 lings are often planted. In the West Highlands, in localities 

 where squirrels are, not, how often do we find the ground 

 underneath the birch-trees strewed with the fresh green 

 shoots, and under the hazels with the " nut-bobbins ; " and 

 have we not watched the black game busy picking them off 

 and letting them drop ? Many a West Highland road by 

 the margin of a lake or arm of the sea, at certain seasons of 

 the year, are thus thickly strewn, but there are no squirrels 

 there. 



It is true the Capercaillie swallows the buds whole, and 

 differs in its form of food thus far from the squirrel, but I 

 think it unfair to the bird to put all the blame upon it for 

 the " stunting " and " bushing " of the trees, old or young, 

 without taking into consideration the other causes of the 

 damage done. How much damage, done really by the 

 squirrel, is laid to the charge of the Capercaillie ? How 

 much easier is it to see a Capercaillie in a young fir planta- 

 tion, in which the plants are a foot or two in height, than 

 to see the squirrel ! The Capercaillie rises a hundred yards 

 off, and seeks shelter in the higher woods, thus proclaim- 

 ing his presence. The squirrel may, or may not, make for 

 the higher woods, but at all events he more easily evades 

 detection. 



Yet another cause of damage to fir-plantations has been 

 pointed out lately by Mr. J. Hardy, viz. : — the massing of 

 wood-pigeons upon the top-shoots of young spruces and firs 

 (m lit^ \ but I merely indicate these here to show that a 

 much more exhaustive inquiry into the causes of damage to 



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