14 Anecdotal Natural History. 



thin their number. Even our own squirrel is oc- 

 casionally the cause of much damage, especially in 

 young plantations, where it has a habit of nibbling 

 off the topmost shoots, and so stopping the growth of 

 the tree. Nor does it confine its depredations to 

 vegetable life, for it is by no means uncommon to 

 find a bird's nest ransacked by the animal, and the 

 eggs or young ones devoured, as the case may be. It 

 is probable that the squirrel is the real delinquent in 

 many a case of nest-robbing when the blame falls on 

 the shoulders of thoughtless schoolboys. 



It occasionally happens with the grey squirrels, that, 

 having pretty thoroughly devastated a neighbourhood, 

 and finding winter approaching, they are unable to 

 lay up a sufficient stock of food on which to subsist 

 until the spring. Knowing instinctively that if they 

 remain in their present locality they must inevitably 

 die of starvation, they migrate in vast numbers, after 

 the fashion of the lemming in Northern Europe, 

 allowing nothing to check their course, climbing over 

 instead of avoiding any obstacle, such as a wall or 

 house, and leaving nothing eatable behind them. 

 Every blade of grass and every green thing dis- 

 appears, and the transit of one of these hosts leaves 

 the country in much the same condition as if a swarm 

 of locusts had passed over it. 



Then there is the Black Squirrel (Sciurus niger), 

 which, though not nearly so numerous as the preced- 

 ing species, is still far from uncommon. It is a 

 curious circumstance that the black and the grey 

 squirrels seem unable to live in company, and as soon 

 as the latter animal shows itself, the former dis- 

 appears. As its name implies, this animal is of a 

 uniform black hue, and from the fineness of the fur, 

 is much sought after for the sake of the skin. 



There is a somewhat strange-looking squirrel in- 



