THE SQUIRREL 649 



It is fear of humanity alone which The breeding nest is usually about twenty 

 restrains the Squirrel from charging, feet above ground level, a depression in 

 If looks and ejaculations, let alone double- a hollowed fork, which is practically 

 barrelled stamps, could kill, his morning invisible from below, forming the most 

 round would be strewn with corpses. I usual site. Frequently, however, a bird's 

 say " morning" round advisedly, for the nest is adapted, and Squirrels' nests have 

 Squirrel breakfasts betimes, and it is the often been found at quite a low elevation, 

 early risers who see most of him. More I have mentioned that a Squirrel 

 than once just before dawn I have seen breakfasts betimes, but it is the exception 

 Squirrels to all appearance sound asleep rather than the rule that he should break- 

 in the fork of a tree, or even some way fast aloft. Even when, as is by no means 

 out on a bough (they will weld themselves always the case, he is feeding on arboreal 

 to a bough to avoid observation, but in products, he is as hkely as not to come to 

 this case their attitude is quite a different earth with his meal in his mouth. Once 

 one). More than once I have visited he has secured his nut or fir-cone, or 

 captive squirrels in the darkness, and whatever it may be (it is a pretty sight 

 found them sleeping outside their nests to see him manoeuvre to get a big one, 

 in the most extraordinary positions. I for he is as " nippv " as a tomtit, and can 

 have known them, for instance, to hang hang by a hair), he makes for the trunk 

 head downwards from a branch, and to and descends full tilt. Almost invariably 

 sleep suspended by their hind feet or he pauses before he reaches the ground 

 even by one hind foot alone. and looks this way and that with his 



A Squirrel's nest is, I fancy, in its prize sticking out of his mouth. Then, 



origin a shelter against rain and wind, if all be well, he drops to earth, and bounds 



I have never seen Squirrels building at off, his tail rippling behind him, to the 



large, but I have watched them construct particular spot which he has selected for 



their nests in a spacious outdoor enclosure, a breakfast table. This, I have found, 



and as the material provided for them is most often a stump or fallen tree, on 



was "natural," I think I am justified which he can sit a yard or so above ground 



in supposing that I have witnessed their level. Sometimes, however, he appears 



" natural " method. to trust solely to his hearing (no doubt 



To commence with, they collect a he could thread the path to safety blind- 

 quantity of substantial twigs, carry them fold), and feeds upon the ground. As 

 in their mouths to the site selected, and might be expected in the case of an animal 

 build them up, layer after layer, with a who is active, not to say impetuous, 

 mixture of moss, leaves and so forth, from year's end to year's end, the Squirrel 

 until they have raised a pile about a has schooled himself to great variations of 

 foot high. They then twist this, with diet. His staple food is unquestionably 

 their hands and feet, and an occasional vegetable, and his preference is for nuts 

 pull with their teeth, into a rough hollow and hard seeds. He can manage any 

 cylinder, which they line with more British nut or fruit - stone (nuts he 

 moss and leaves, fashioning an inner usually splits in half, but fruit - stones 

 sphere of the latter by rolling them- he has to gnaw), and he appears to 

 selves round inside it. The roofing is possess an extraordinary nicety of per- 

 accomplished from within, the twigs ception as to whether the kernels are in 

 which form the sides of the nest being good order. If you proffer a bad nut to 

 tugged into suitable positions. A bolt a Squirrel, he will almost throw it at you. 

 hole, sometimes two bolt holes arc left. Apart from nuts and fruit-stones, 

 but these are not necessarily permanent. Squirrels are fond of all kinds of fruit 

 and it is considered by some observers containing sizable seeds — apples or pears 

 that their outlook is determined by the for example, sloes, hips and haws, even 

 prevailing wind. If this be the case corn. He is fond also of fungi, and the 

 the completed structure is wind-proof German naturalist Lons describes him as 

 and water-proof, both of which conditions getting intoxicated on the fermenting sap 

 are essential to the comfort of the mature of oak-bark. I have a note of a Squirrel 

 Squirrel, and to the life of the immature, busily engaged on the bark of an old 



