Dibba Gi SH ORVEIGHT-TAlER PD SOUIRREIG | 717 
and she is not afraid-to approach within 4 or 5 feet of a man 
to scold him vigorously. There is a record of one which twice 
flew at a birdnester’s throat, and cut his shirt with her teeth 
before she had to retire before superior force. After the 
retreat of an enemy the mother often removes her young, 
especially if they have been handled, from the nest to some 
place of supposed greater safety, bearing them in her mouth, 
and venturing away from trees and across roads. One young, 
while thus carried, was observed to occupy a position wrapped 
round the neck of the dam like a boa. But one which Mr 
W. Evans caused the mother to drop, and which he sent to 
Barrett- Hamilton in May to11, was carried by the skin 
between the right fore-leg (arm) and the breast. Sometimes a 
female may be seen playing with and training her babies after 
they leave the nest, and this forms one of the prettiest sights 
of the woodlands. 
Apart from man, and Martens formerly, the Squirrel does 
not appear to have many enemies in Britain. Owls, kestrels, 
and stock-doves sometimes occupy its drey, but probably not 
until after desertion by the rightful owner... Mr Forrest once 
found a pair of stoats in occupation—a far more serious 
invasion. It probably suffers more diminution in numbers 
during hard winters than from any other causes, and great 
numbers are said to have perished in Upper Nidderdale during 
the very hard winters of the early eighties. 
The Squirrel is liable to considerable variety in point of 
colour (vzde supra, p. 697) the details of which were not properly 
understood until Mr Oldfield Thomas explained that much that 
was formerly supposed to be accidental is in reality normally 
recurrent each season as part of the animal’s regular routine 
of moult and change of coat. This is particularly the case in 
regard to the cream-coloured tails, which were so long thought 
to be instances of irregular variation, but which are really 
characteristic of the animal and the basis of its scientific name. 
The fur of the British Squirrel is no longer used in 
commerce, although at one time it was a favourite decoration 
for robes, and it is known to have been exported in quantities 
1 For a record of a Squirrel being seized and carried away by a Tawny Owl, see 
R. W. B. in L. E. Hope and D. I. Thorpe (Zoologist, 1912, 184). 
VOL. II. 2Z2 
