Mr Harvic-Broiun on the Squirrel in Great Britain. 167 



little doubt they will act as aids to their advance.* Upon 

 Quarter estate, near this, there is a dyke or wall which, it is 

 well known, constitutes the squirrel's highway between the 

 Quarter covers, and those of Dales wood on the adjoining- 

 property of Denovan. They are seen constantly passing from 

 the one cover to the other along the top of this dyke, which 

 forms the march wall between Quarter and West Plean on the 

 north. Other more extraordinary instances are given of their 

 curious wandering propensities. Mr Clark, jun., Glenfeshie, 

 relates how one once came down a chimney in his house, " and 

 alighted on a girdle that was on the fire for baking purposes, 

 and eventually, not relishing its position, landed with one 

 bound in the window, only to meet a worse fate, being 

 speedily torn to pieces by the terriers." Another squirrel 

 which got shut up in a new house that was being built in the 

 same glen, made its exit and escape by the same route that 

 the other made its entry. 



It is worthy of record that, as far as I have been able to 

 ascertain, in all instances in which squirrels have been found 

 on open moors, at long distances from wood, they have been 

 travelling in a northerly direction at the time when dis- 

 covered. This apparently inborn tendency to press northward 

 may be traced from early {i.e., Geological) times, and is com- 

 mon to many animals and birds. 



The Eev. W. Gordon, Braemar, relates another instance of 

 the peculiar habit the squirrel seems to have of getting into 

 and out of scrapes. In this case Mr Eobert Grant captured 

 a squirrel when a lad, but on its escape immediately after, it 

 suddenly climbed up the inside of the legs of its captor's 

 trousers, which, having been " made down," were unusually 

 wide. 



Eivers do not invariably deter them. Long ago this was 

 known to the writer of the curious metrical emblems ; for he 

 says : 



The squirrel, when she must goe seeke her (bod 

 By making passage through the angry flood, 



* And we find it recorded of the common brown hare, that it appeared in 

 the mountainous districts of Lismore and Appin "not until after roads were 

 made, which opened communication with the low country" (''New Stat. 

 Acct.," Arg}deshire, p. 233). 



