NOTES ON SOME HABITS OF THE SQUIRREL. 31 



would have been killed by a lot of angry jackdaws, but he managed 

 to get into a clump of laurel bushes, and so escaped. 



It is a pity that so pretty and interesting an animal should have 

 any bad habits. Whatever may be the truth of the gamekeepers' 

 indictment, squirrels are certainly most hurtful in a fir plantation. 

 Not content with eating the seeds out of the cones, they feed on 

 the young shoots, and gnaw the bark off even the trunks of good 

 sized trees, sometimes all round, or nearly so. This causes not 

 only profuse bleeding of the tree, but the wind soon breaks off the 

 crippled portion and the tree is ruined, though, if young, another 

 leader will be formed from a lateral branch in time. 



Squirrels are also often very destructive to strawberries. Some 

 few years ago, for several seasons, I had a large part of my crop 

 destroyed by them. The largest and ripest were picked off, a piece 

 eaten out, and the rest left between the rows of plants. It 

 required the greatest care and trouble to catch the depredators in 

 the act. I only did so once or twics. The beds were all surrounded 

 with a low galvanised wire netting and covered with fine meshed 

 string nets. For some time I was uncertain about the identity of 

 the thieves, as I only found the remains of the strawberries and 

 numerous holes in the string netting. At first I suspected rats ; 

 by careful concealment and watching, however, I did at length one 

 day see my friend the squirrel seated on the railing to which the 

 wire netting was fastened and gnawing a hole in the string net, 

 through which he dived down in a moment among the straw- 

 berries. Before I could get to the opposite end of the bed he had 

 heard me coming, and had as speedily gnawed another hole and let 

 himself out. My belief is that these little thieves always gnawed 

 a fresh hole to go in at and another to come out through on every 

 visit to the beds. When disturbed from the strawberry beds they 

 usually concealed themselves near the top of some leafy apple tree 

 not far off. After much close search I discovered their place of 

 hiding, and in the course of half-an-hour one morning five had paid 

 the penalty of their lives, and the remainder of my strawberries 

 for the year had peace. 



