THE EUROPEAN SQUIRREL. 309 



Mov'd in the orb, pleas'd with the chimes, 



The foolish creature thinks he climbs ; 



But here or there, turn wood or wire, 



He never gets two inches higher." (PRIOR.) 



But away\with the squirrel's treadmill, let him have a fixed 

 residence ! Sir George Head remarks that, " If there be one 

 method more efficacious than another to deprive a squirrel of 

 liberty it is this very contrivance, whereby, do what he will, he 

 never can possibly be in a state of rest, where, let him vary 

 ever so little, even for a moment, from his central position, 

 everything begins tumbling about his ears. I have many times 

 observed the panting sides of the little animal, its breath 

 exhausted by galloping, kicking, and straining worried, and 

 alarmed, without enjoying a single inch of progressive motion, 

 or one refreshing change of attitude, for minutes together within 

 his treadmill. A man, pelted with mud, may believe he is 

 hunting, or, lying on his stomach on wet grass, think he is 

 swimming, as reasonably as a poor squirrel, in the midst of 

 a whirling maze of wood and iron, can enjoy liberty and the 

 delight of running. A quiet home is a home be it ever so 

 humble ; but when the House itself turns round and round, its 

 homeliness is destroyed altogether. Fixed against the outside 

 of a house at Hull I saw a common wire cage, such as is 

 generally used for a blackbird, furnished with perches in the 

 usual manner, and containing two squirrels, living amicably 

 together^ and by the variety of their active movements, in 

 comparison with the monotonous labour before alluded to, 

 affording a highly delightful exhibition. These little creatures 

 threw somersets, ten or a dozen in succession, over each other's 

 backs, and round the perches, one after another 5 and suddenly 

 they would stop and change the line of direction, passing each 

 other contrariwise, and forming both together in the air a 

 double figure of eight."* 



Lovell says the flesh of the squirrel " is sweet and good* 

 The black is the best. It may be compared to the flesh of 



* Home Tour through the Manufacturing Districts (1837). 



