INTRODUCTION 



the name of. Once I remember I saw a 

 squirrel eating the buds of the sycamore, in 

 the spring." 



Other testimony of the highest authority 

 shows that the squirrels, while undoubtedly 

 eating the young wood when nothing better 

 offers, take really a very small tithe of the 

 realm which was once all their own. Whether 

 stern capital can afford this small taxation 

 on its interest, it is not for me to decide. 

 At least, we have a right to hope that where 

 forestry is not a speculation, the squirrel 

 may be protected when his nature is under- 

 stood. And since this book was published 

 I have had an experience in my own wood- 

 land, showing that when food of any kind 

 and water is provided for them the squirrels 

 harm nothing. 



In the large parks in the American cities 

 — New York, Richmond, Philadelphia, Bal- 

 timore (in Cambridge, even in the private 

 grounds they are protected,) — the American 

 grey squirrel is acclimatised, and grows very 

 familiar, so much so, that to people with 

 whom they become acquainted, they will 



