710 SCIURIDAZ—SCIURUS 
is also fond of several kinds of fungi, including mushrooms, and 
will tear off old bark of trees in search of them. Von Tschudi 
long ago declared that the Alpine Squirrels dig up truffles, 
and this observation was repeated for Britain at Elveden, 
Suffolk, by the late Prof. A. Newton and one of his brothers, 
and in Ireland by Mr P. Bicknell. 
In eating, the Squirrel holds its food to its mouth with its 
fore-paws. In gnawing through the hard shells of nuts it 
displays much skill. Captives observed by Mr Bonhote always 
held a nut by the larger end and nibbled a hole into the smaller 
end; when the hole was large enough, they inserted their lower 
incisors, and with a sharp jerk of the head a piece of the shell 
was broken off, an action repeated until the kernel could be 
extracted. The scales of fir-cones are bitten off, and the seeds 
devoured ; the presence of fossil fir-cones in the late pliocene 
Forest Bed of Norfolk gnawed in this way has been mentioned 
above (p. 695). 
Sometimes the terrestrial foraging expeditions are carried 
far afield, as must needs be the case when it journeys from one 
wood or plantation to another, and Barrett- Hamilton knew one 
to be caught in a trap set for rats in a field of cabbage. It has 
been frequently encountered amongst the heather of the Scotch 
moors, and a number of instances of such wanderings were 
collected by Mr Harvie-Brown while compiling his paper on 
the Squirrel in Great Britain. From these it appears that 
single Squirrels have strayed for distances of at least 9 miles 
from the nearest trees, so that it is not surprising to find that 
newly wooded districts are rarely long neglected by this species, 
as has so frequently been shown in Scotland, Wales, and 
Ireland. Sometimes wandering Squirrels find themselves in 
very unexpected quarters, as after entering houses by their 
chimneys. The most remarkable escapade is that related by 
Mr A. E. Knox of a Highlander, who, never having seen a 
Squirrel before, came across one on an open moor. It is 
doubtful whether man or Squirrel was the more surprised: the 
latter, to avoid the Highlander’s dog, promptly climbed to the 
top of the man’s head; the Highlander, greatly alarmed, 
believed his assailant to be “a thing wi’ horns.” It appears 
that roads, walls, rails, or hedgerows, and even railway bridges 
