II 



SQUIRREL MEMOIRS 



A SQUIEEEL'S COLLECTANEA 



In your issue of March 7 you insert a letter from a 

 correspondent on ' ' Squirrels and Coconuts ' ' which recalls 

 to me an experience of my own. I gave my gamekeeper 

 strict injunctions never on any occasion to shoot a squirrel. 

 I look upon squirrels as a species of handmaiden, and in 

 any case he is a happy-go-lucky creature, intending little 

 ill, and if he does offend at times, his company and 

 capers on the lawn or on the trees make up for his 

 mischiefs. I was once compelled, with some mis- 

 giving, to take down a squirrel's abode, as a tree was 

 to be removed to preserve the light of a parlour situated 

 in the Forfarshire Highlands, the roof of the room being 

 low, and the tree being the pious abode of the squirrel 

 and his mate. The gross weight of the nest was six 

 pounds, made up of the nest itself proper, an old stocking, 

 an old glove, a bit of the Spectator, a reduced copy of 

 the Church of Scotland hymnal, a leather watch-guard, a 

 large bunch of black face wool, the remains of a heavy 

 dish clout, an apron string, the handle of a whip, a girl's 

 glove, one pound of mortar from an old quarry, one leaf 

 of an old sermon which had been delivered at a Sunday 

 conventicle in Glenisla, and other odds and ends difficult 

 to assort and easy to escape the memory. I could not 

 restore the nest, because my object was to make a digest 

 of it for the Spectator if you shall be pleased courteously 

 to insert this letter. 



WILLIAM YAPP. 



March 21, 1908. 



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