Mr Harme-Brown on the Squirrel in Great Britain. 343 



IX. Early Chapters in the History of the Squirrel in Ch^eat 

 Britain. By J. A. Harvie-Brown, Esq., F.Z.S., Mem- 

 ber of the British Ornithologists' Union. 



(Read 21st April 1S80.) 



Geological Evidence. 



We have no evidence of the occurrence of the squirrel in 

 post-tertiary deposits. It is not, I believe, made mention of 

 by Dr James Geikie as being found in post-tertiary deposits 

 in Scotland in his " Great Ice Age." Mr A. Murray, in " The 

 Geographical Distribution of Mammals," tells us : " The only 

 fossil remains of squirrels are of recent date. 

 Eemains of the living species of squirrels have been found in 

 bone caves, but nothing indicating its presence in Europe or 

 indeed anywhere else at a more ancient date." Nor does it 

 appear to be of common occurrence even in more recent 

 remains. The only evidence of squirrels in the Pleistocene 

 Shale of Britain is that afforded by gnawed fir-cones in the 

 pre-glacial forest bed of Norfolk, which were recognised by 

 Professor Heer and the late Eev. S. W. King, as I am in- 

 formed by Professor Boyd Dawkins, who adds further, that 

 he " does not know of any bones of squirrels in any prehis- 

 toric deposit, and I do not think that the nuts (found in 

 marl, etc.) are proved to have been gnawed by them and not 

 by Arvicola am^phihia!' I may add here that I have since 

 collected gnawed nuts from various localities and compared 

 them with recent ones, and it seems to me quite impossible 

 to separate them by any evidence afforded by the tooth- 

 marks. Those gnawed by smaller rodents (such as species, 

 probably, of field-mice), are more easily distinguishable. 



This apparent absence from recent deposits in Great Britain 

 may, in some measure, perhaps be accounted for by its ar- 

 boreal habits. If traces of it however are found in the pre- 

 glacial beds of Norfolk, is its absence in other localities 

 further north not without significance as regards its distribu- 

 tion in time ? 



