118 PROTECTION AGAINST ANIMALS. 



in his neighbourhood, the stoats, which are their greatest 

 enemies, have disappeared. 



(e) Ferreting, the ferret being merely a domesticated variety 

 of pole-cat. This is usually followed from October till the end 

 of February, when rabbits do not generally have young. The 

 ferret is sent into the burrow, and a net placed at its opening 

 into which the rabbits run, or they may be shot when driven 

 by the ferret out of their burrows. 



(/) Shooting. This is very useful, if carried on in summer 

 when the rabbits are breeding and does are easily shot, 

 especially in young plantations. 



Every Enclosure Act allowing planting in Crown forests 

 states, that no rabbits should be kept, on any pretence 

 whatever. 



SECTION IV. THE SQUIRREL. 

 1. Damage Done. 



The damage done by squirrels is greater than is generally 

 imagined. They eat fruits and seeds, cotyledons and buds, 

 and bite off young shoots, remove bark, and destroy eggs and 

 young birds. Their utility in destroying beetles, larvae of saw- 

 flies and other insects, does not compensate for the harm they do. 



In 1901, ^'80 was spent in the Countess of Seafield's estate 

 at Granttown in rewards for killing squirrels at 2|d. per head. 

 They had done much damage by girdling larch and Scots pine. 



a. Destruction of Fruits and Seedlings. 



Beech-nuts, acorns, hazel-nuts and seeds of spruce and Scots 

 pine constitute the chief food of the squirrel. Besides these, 

 it eats seeds of other conifers, fruits of horn- 

 beam and maple and of mountain-ash, and 

 walnuts, apples and other garden fruits. A 

 large proportion of the annual supply of 

 fruit may thus be lost, and in coniferous 

 woods, natural reproduction may be greatly 

 Fig. 33. Hazel-nut reduced. Beech-nuts are often eaten in their 

 opened by squirrel. involucres by squirrels from September. 



Fig. 33 shows how the hazel-nut is 

 attacked by this little animal, and Figs. 34 and 35 how the 

 scales are stripped from the spruce-cones so that it can get 



