128 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 
in the east of Berwickshire, as early as 1830 or 1831; and 
1838 or 1839 is the date fixed by Mr Kelly for their first 
appearance in Lauderdale, where they rapidly increased, and 
necessitated an order for their destruction in 1849, in con- 
sequence of the damage they were committing among the 
young fir trees (Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, viii., p. 527). 
The Squirrel has sometimes been accused of killing birds, 
merely because their bones have been found in its dreys, but 
as well might I argue that it occasionally kills sheep, because I 
recently observed one gnawing a shank-bone of that quadruped. 
Observing the little animal working with something on the 
ground in a large fir wood, I walked towards it, when it at 
once scampered up a tall clean-stemmed tree, holding the 
object in its mouth. Having reached a branch about fifty 
feet from the ground, it sat down, and, grasping the prize 
between its fore-paws, began nibbling at the end of it. On 
my striking the branch with a stone, it dropped the object, 
which, to my surprise, was a sheep’s shank-bone, measuring 
fully seven inches in length. A large hole had already been 
gnawed in the thick end of it. 
According to Bell, the young are born in the month of 
June, and MacGillivray’s statement is to the same effect, but 
I am inclined to think April is the more usual time, and that 
a second litter may frequently be born in the latter part of 
summer. Unfortunately I can only give one exact date, 
namely, 23rd April, on which day a nest containing several 
young Squirrels was discovered. At least two other instances, 
however, of young in April have come to my knowledge’; 
also one in August. As to the supposed hibernation of the 
Squirrel, I can only say that I have seen them frisking about 
in every month of the year. 
[MUSCARDINUS AVELLANARIUS (Z.), | DORMOUSE. 
In 1838 MacGillivray wrote, “This species ... has not 
hitherto been satisfactorily proved to exist in Scotland, 
although it has been reported to me to occur near Gifford in 
East Lothian” (“ British Quadrupeds,” p. 256). No evidence 
in support of this statement has ever been forthcoming, and 
we must therefore conclude that his informant was in error.] 
