708 SCIURIDZ—SCIURUS 
only the soft parts, but sometimes the kernels are devoured. 
There can be no doubt that, when numerous, apart from its 
depredations in gardens, it often causes serious damage to 
plantations ; and, although the lover of nature may agree with 
Sir H. Johnston, that its misdeeds are partially atoned for by 
its fascinating appearance, the prudent forester will keep its 
numbers from assuming inconvenient proportions. One of the 
most conspicuous of its misdemeanours is its habit of attacking 
the early leaf-shoots of the horse chestnut, or less frequently of 
sycamores, which in spring appear to be very palatable to it, 
and are ruthlessly torn from the tree and then thrown to the 
ground. It is no less destructive to the young shoots and 
leaves of the beech. Alston accused it of barking young 
birches,' and a number of authorities have shown that amongst 
its gravest offences is the stripping off of whole areas of bark 
right round a tree trunk, especially a conifer, at a distance of a 
few feet of the top—thus damaging the leading shoots. This 
it does to get at the inner bark. The resulting damage is 
incurable in the case of conifers, the tops of which decay and 
then turn over before the wind. Such crimes chiefly occur in 
the new woods of replanted areas, and are most often seen in 
trees of about twenty years’ growth. Younger trees appear to 
be exempt, as do also the older firs of native forests, in which 
the more abundant cones supply a quantity of food. 
The loss from such attacks has been estimated at very 
high figures in Scotch forests. At Glen Tanar, Aberdeenshire, 
one thousand trees worth 4500 were ruined in one year; and 
on the Cawdor Estates it was considered worth while to pay 
over £200 for the destruction of more than fourteen thousand 
Squirrels between the years 1862 and 1878. 
But there is another count on which the Squirrel must 
meet with our righteous condemnation, namely, for its destruc- 
tion of the eggs and young of birds, concerning which the 
testimony of many accusers is, despite a vigorous defence by 
the many admirers of the culprit, now unquestionable. Thus 
Captain Saville G. Reid charges it with robbing the nests of the 
Long-eared Owl, and, on one occasion, of the Greater Spotted 
1 Cocks finds young crabs (while still in more or less bush form, before they 
become single stemmed trees), barked throughout at Poynetts. 
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