SQUIRREL 



Several litters are produced during the year, each litter 

 numbering from five to ten. A nest is hastily constructed 

 below ground, and, as the young are both naked and 

 blind at birth, the parents need to have their wits about 

 them to keep enemies, such as Stoats, Weasels and Foxes, 

 at bay. Taking care to feed upon the best vegetable 

 food it can procure — grass, parsley, parsnip, and the 

 rest — small wonder that the Rabbit is so much esteemed 

 for the table. If this was not so, one wonders what 

 would happen if its numbers were not thus reduced, 

 and during the Great War, when there was such a 

 scarcity of butcher's meat, the homely Rabbit supplied 

 many a cupboard that might otherwise have gone bare. 



Squirrel. — Associated as it is with boyhood's days, 

 small wonder the furry form of the British Squirrel 

 (Fig. ic) still makes a bold appeal to us. It was a cheery 

 woodsprite in the glad days of our youth, and ever since 

 those far-off days our enthusiasm for it has remained 

 undimned. 



It is very partial to fir and pine woods, where it not 

 only finds the seeds of the cones excellently suited for its 

 gnawing habits, and what is equally important, of palat- 

 able qualities, but among the dense, matted branches it 

 is able to leap from bough to bough with amazing 

 cleverness, and also finds a fir-tree a congenial spot in 

 which to hide its large nest or drey. 



Of recent years, the introduction in our English 



woods and parks of the American Grey Squirrel has had 



disastrous results in reducing the numbers of our own 



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