104 PROTECTION OF WOODLANDS. 



of squirrels. They eat out the former from seedlings in nursery- 

 beds as well as from larger transplants, and even bite through the 

 leading-shoots so as to get at the buds. In order to obtain the 

 flowering buds, and they are especially fond of the male buds of 

 the Spruce, they bite off the thin twigs on which the buds are 

 situated, eat out the latter, and then let the sprays drop to the 

 ground. Such bitten and nibbled twigs or cast sprays, of about a 

 finger's length in size, are often to be found lying in large numbers 

 under old Spruce trees. The male flowering buds of the Oak and 

 Beech are also devoured in great numbers by squirrels, and per- 

 haps also the female buds, but this has not been so authoritatively 

 settled. 



Squirrels also love to peel the soft, sappy bark from young 

 conifers in spring, and to a less extent from broad-leaved species 

 too, scaling it off in small patches from the upper parts of 

 the stem, biting through the rind, and sucking or licking the sap, 

 so that slender stems are injured to no slight extent by the 

 damage done to the bark. In some places, indeed, the injuries 

 thus done to Larch, Pine, and Spruce poles, and exceptionally 

 even to the Oak, have been very considerable. 



The robbing of nests by squirrels may be regarded as an 

 indirect injury, for they steal the young brood from the nests, and 

 thus destroy no small number of birds that would otherwise have 

 been of use throughout the woodlands ; and at the same time, any 

 good they may do directly by feeding on various kinds of injurious 

 insects (as, for example, the chrysalides of saw-flies), is but small 



Wherever there is any excess of squirrels they should 

 be shot down energetically, which can easily be done by game- 

 keepers and subordinate foresters without any practical dilli- 

 culty. 



Of tbe tree-mice, the common Dormouse (Myoxus glis) is 

 commoner in warm southern lands, whilst the Hazel or Garden 

 Dormouse (Myoxus avellanarius) is more frequent in cold northern 

 tracts. In addition to devouring tree-seeds, they are charncirr- 

 ised by generally gnawing the bark in a circular manner, par- 

 ticularly the rind of the Beech, but also that of the Silver Kir 

 and the Larch ; hence in years when the tree-mice are numerous, 

 the damage done can be very perceptible. General protective 

 measures are hardly applicable; they consist usually in catching 

 the little animals in traps, for their nocturnal habits contribute 



