CLASS MAMMALIA. 57 



remember, by some fishermen in their nets. The specimen, 

 which was aged and blind, was dissected by Professor Clark, 

 and presented to the Cambridge Anatomical Museum. 



A great source of error in consulting records of Seal cap- 

 tures is the uncertainty about the species, in consequence of 

 the finds being rarely examined by competent naturalists. 

 With more observers, too, no doubt some of the other species 

 of Seals would have been added to this list. 



Order RODENTIA. 



Family SCIURID^E. 



Genus SciURUS, Linn. 



Sciurus vulgaris, Linn. COMMON SQUIRREL. 



This elegant and active little animal is so well known that 

 very little need be said about it. It occurs in all parts of the 

 county where suitable spots (that is woods) are to be found. 



It is almost omnivorous. Mr. E. A. Fitch gives (Essex 

 Nat., vol. ii., p. 71) some proofs that it occasionally kills small 

 birds for food. Birds' eggs and insects are also sometimes 

 eaten, but vegetables form its main support. In the early 

 spring, when the beech-trees are coming into leaf, I have 

 noticed as many as six squirrels busily feeding on the young 

 shoots of trees. They will bite off and throw down the 

 leaves, consuming only the stalk that is, the young 

 branch. In the autumn, I have seen Squirrels strip off the 

 loose bark from dead branches, and carefully scrape out 

 with their teeth the fungus frequently found under the bark. 

 When this ingenious process is going on, the position adopted 

 by the Squirrel is not the usual one for feeding; for instead of 

 sitting up on its haunches, the creature almost invariably hangs 

 head downwards. 



Although said to hybernate, I question if the Squirrel, as 



