British Wild Beasts. 191 



The cone beset with many a scale. 

 The chestnut in its coat of mail, 

 Or nuts complete his hoard." 



Or, in Clare — 



" The squirrel bobbing from the eye 

 Is busy now about his hoard ; 

 And in old nest of crow or pye. 

 His winter-store is oft explored." 



But this engaging prevision has a charm within a charm. 

 For the squirrel goes to sleep during the winter, and its 

 diligence in collecting food for a time when it does not 

 need it might therefore seem somewhat misdirected. But 

 the squirrel knows that there are often breaks of fine 

 weather in the middle of winter, and it is really for these 

 occasional picnics that the brown hermit provisions him- 

 self— 



" When drawn from refuge in some lonely elm, 

 That age or injury has hollowed deep, 

 Where on his bed of wool and matted leaves 

 He has outslept the winter, ventures forth 

 To frisk awhile, and bask in the warm sun." 



So that as a matter of fact the squirrel does not lay up 

 food against bad weather, but against fine, Moreover, it 

 very often happens that the Uttle creature forgets where 

 it has concealed its hoards; and every one who Hves in 

 the country knows how common it is in tumble-down walls 

 or about old trees to find stocks of nuts and acorns that 

 have been laid up but never consumed. The instinct to 

 lay by against hea\7 snowfalls has been inherited, no doubt, 

 from progenitors who lived in the years of harder winters, 

 and though the necessity for its exercise now hardly exists, 

 the squirrel is still as industrious as ever, and, therefore, 

 twice as industrious as it need be. 



Its merry heart is certainly one of the squirrel's many 



