' A warm sunny day will always tempt it forth." 



THE SQUIRREL 



A 



S Macgillivray, the old Scottish 

 naturalist, truly remarks, 

 " the agility of the Squirrel, 

 its lively disposition and 

 beautiful form, render it 

 a general favourite." It 

 looks much more at home, 

 and far prettier, when 

 scampering amongst the boughs of a 

 tree, or sitting up on a stump with its 

 bushy tail over its back, than it does on 

 the ground, where it runs like a rabbit, 

 with its brush stretched out behind it. 

 Although so exceedingly nimble, I have 

 on more than one occasion seen a 

 Squirrel, when alarmed, miscalculate the 

 distance from one branch to another, 

 and fall to the ground below. 



A Cumberland gamekeeper recently 

 told me that he once witnessed a great 

 chase between a stoat and a Squirrel, 

 the latter animal only escaping by reason 

 of its greater ability to leap from the 

 slender branch of one tree to that of 



2 9 



another. I can readily believe this, for 

 I have watched stoats climb thorn 

 bushes, and even straight smooth hazels 

 no thicker than a man's thumb, with 

 ease and expedition, and remember on 

 one occasion a boy, who was out climbing 

 for me in a Westmorland wood, finding 

 a dead one in a Squirrel's nest amongst 

 the branches of a fir tree, not less than 

 forty feet from the ground. 



It is a popular but quite mistaken 

 belief that the Squirrel hibernates during 

 the winter months. A warm sunny 

 day will always tempt it forth to one 

 of its hidden stores of food ; I have, 

 indeed, seen Squirrels abroad showing all 

 their wonted animation even when the 

 snowflakes have been flying thick and 

 fast. I do not know whether the same 

 thing holds good in regard to the grey 

 Squirrel or not, but I have seen it in 

 America hunting for food during very 

 cold weather in the early spring. 



The food of the Squirrel consists of 



