48 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



must introduce other means of locating the enemy, and fall 

 back on the dog. They were in a fortunate and enviable 

 position should they possess a dog trained to the work, and 

 very soon it would indicate the exact tree on which the squirrel 

 was situated. If their eyes were good, they would soon spot 

 the squirrel and bring him to earth. He would like to emphasise 

 the necessity for having a dog trained for this work, as without 

 it they could never hope to cope successfully with this enemy 

 to their growing woodlands. 



The dog might be a spaniel, retriever, or collie; each was 

 equally good, providing they had the right man to do the 

 teaching. He would give them, briefly, the advice of an old 

 hand at the game, who had not only acquired the necessary 

 experience himself, but had passed on his knowledge to others, 

 who were now equally as expert as himself. That expert said 

 they must have a dog of trainable age, say from 6 to 1 2 months. 

 The greatest difficulty, first of all, was breaking the dog off 

 rabbits, but that was easily done once the dog realised what 

 he was actually there to do. Once a squirrel had been shot 

 the dog would likely pounce upon it when it fell to the ground. 

 They should then dissect it and give the dog the liver to eat, 

 and allow him to lick the blood but not the intestines. That 

 would cause it in due course to be eager for further prey, and 

 it would scent the squirrel at a distance. The dog would then 

 bark and jump up at the tree on which the squirrel was sitting. 



So much for destroying by means of shooting, only they 

 must remember that numbers could be killed in winter as 

 well as in summer. In winter squirrels made for the lower 

 ground. Trapping was the next method to be examined, and 

 although it was not so effective as shooting, yet in some cases 

 it need not altogether be discarded. Various kinds of traps 

 had been experimented with, such as box traps, similar in shape 

 and action to patent rat traps. These were placed on the top 

 of the banking at the outsides of woods, where squirrels usually 

 run. Although he had seen numbers of them in use, it had 

 rarely been his lot to discover a squirrel in any of them. 



The other system of trapping, which he had seen prove fairly 

 successful, was by placing a pole alongside a ride in the wood, 

 one end of the pole being in the ground, and the other on 

 a tree at an angle of about 35 degrees. They should cut out 

 a piece out of the pole about half-way up, sufficient to allow 



