THE SQUIRREL. 261 



thyme and other salubrious herbs which grow on 

 these heaps of earth. Where these have been 

 levelled and cleared away, sheep are not found to 

 thrive as well as they did previously. This fact 

 was confirmed to me by Mr. Hogg, the Ettrick 

 shepherd, who deprecated the practice of re- 

 moving mole-hills. In Leicestershire, where old 

 mole-hills are extremely abundant in the fine and 

 extensive pastures which are to be found in that 

 county, sheep thrive well and are generally 

 healthy. In further confirmation also of what has 

 been stated, I have been assured that in conse- 

 quence of the mole-hills having been destroyed in 

 a park which formerly belonged to the present 

 Earl of Essex, in Herefordshire, the deer in it 

 never afterwards throve well."* 



But although there may still be room for dis- 

 cussion as to the utility or hurtfulness of the 

 mole in its bearing upon the affairs of the agricul- 

 turist, the game preserver can hardly contrive to 

 pick a quarrel with it on his own account ; and 

 the poor squirrel might be supposed to deserve at 

 least equal immunity. But alas ! such is not the 

 case. More than one instance of some half- 

 starved incarcerated individual having partaken of 

 raw meat has been cruelly adduced as a proof of 

 its blood-thirsty propensities ; nay, it was once my 



* Gleanings in Natural History, 1st series, vol. i. p. 280. 



