g6 September 1748. 



the ears in pieces and eat only the loofe and 

 fweet kernel which lies quite in the infide. 

 They fometimes come by hundreds upon a 

 maize-field, and then deftroy the whole 

 crop of a countryman in one night. In 

 Maryland therefore every one is obliged an- 

 nually to bring four fquirrels, and their 

 heads are given to the furveyor, to prevent 

 deceit. In other provinces every body that 

 kills fquirrels, received tw^opence a piece 

 for them from the public, on delivering 

 the heads. Their flefh is eaten and reck- 

 oned a dainty. The fkins are fold, but are 

 not much efteemed. Squirrels are the chief 

 food of the rattle-fnake and other fnakes, 

 and it was a common fancy with the peo- 

 ple hereabouts, that when the rattle fnake 

 lay on the ground, and fixed its eyes upon 

 a fquirrel, the latter would be as it were 

 fafcinated, and that though it were on the 

 uppermoft branches of a tree, yet it would 

 come down by degrees, till it leaped into 

 the fnake's mouth. The fnake then licks 

 the little animal feveral times, and makes 

 it wet all over with its fpittle, that it may 

 go down the throat eafier. It then fwallows 

 the whole fquirrel at once. When the 

 fnake has made fuch a good meal, it lies 

 down to reft without any concern. 



The quadruped, which Dr. Linnceus in 



the 



